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Cretan Dictographs and prae-Phoenician s

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CEETAN PICTOGEAPHS

PEAE-PHOENICIAN SCEIPT

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF A SEPULCHRAL DEPOSIT

AT HAGIOS ONUPHRIOS NEAR PHAESTOS

IN ITS RELATION TO PRIMITIVE CRETAN

AND AEGEAN CULTURE

AETHUR J. EVANS, M.A., F.S.A.

KEEPEK OF THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM
AND HON. FELLOW OF BKASENOSE COLLEGE, OXFORD

WITH A COLOURED PLATE, TABLES, AND 139 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT

Eontion
BERNAED QUARITCH, 15 PICCADILLY

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, 27 WEST 23d STREET

1895
■ s

D F

RicnAED Clay and Sons, Limited,

lONDON AND BUNGAY.

ti -B

NOTE.

The first of these papers is reprinted, by permission, from the Hellenic
Journal (Vol. xiv. Pt. II. 1895) with some slight additions and corrections.
The account of the Hagios Onuphrios deposit and its bearings on the
prehistoric culture of the Aegean world is now issued for the first time.
Already in 1893, on the occasion of my paper on 'A Mycenaean Treasure
from Aegina ' I ventured to announce to the Hellenic Society that I had found
what I believed to be a clue to the existence of a system of picture-writing in the
Greek lands. The result of my explorations in Crete during the spring of 1894
was not only to confirm this discovery as regards the ' pictographic ' system but to
add distinct evidence of the existence in the island at a very early period of a
linear system of writing standing in a certain relation to the pictorial. A
summary report of the results of my researches in Crete in the spring of 1894
was sent by me to the Athenaeum from Candia on April 25 of last year, and
appeared in that Journal on June 23. The Times of Aug. 29 published a further
account of my Cretan discoveries, written by me at the request of the Editor,
and I also read a paper on the subject in the Anthropological Section of the
British Association, of which reports appeared in the Academy and other papers.
On that occasion I called attention for the first time to certain archaeological
evidence connecting the Philistines with Mycenaean Crete. In the second paper
of this book and the supplement are incorporated some further materials obtained
by me. during another Cretan journey undertaken this spring.

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS.

Peimitive pictographs AMD A peae-Phoenician script from

Crete AND THE Peloponnese .. . ... ... ... ••• (270) — (372)

§ I. — Cretan discoveries ... ... ... ... ... ••• (270) — (288)

§ II. — The facetted stones with pictographic and linear symbols (288) — (299)

§ III. — Evidences of a pictographic script ... ... ... (300) — (302)

§ IV. — Classification and comparison of the symboLs ... ... (302) — (317)

§ V. — The Mycenaean affinities of the Cretan pictographs ... (317) — (324)

§ VI. — The earlier classes of Cretan seal-stones ... ... (324) — (345)

§ VII. — The linear signs and their relation to the pictographic

series (346)— (372)

The Sepulchral deposit of Hagios Onuphrios near Phaestos

IN ITS relation to THE PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN

CULTURE (105)— (136)

Supplementary notes ... ... ... ... ... ... (137)

Index (140)

ILLUSTEATIONS.

PEIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS ETC.

Fig. 1. — Signs oa vase-handle, Mycenae

Fig. 2. — Signs on amphora-handle, Mycenae ...

Fig. 3. — Terracotta OS, Goulas ...

Fig. 4. — Clay cup with incised characters, Goulas

Fig. 46. — Characters on Goulas cup

Fig. 5. — Yase with incised characters, Prodromos Botzano . . .

Fig. 56.— Characters on vase from Prodromos Botzano

Fig. 6. — Bronze axe with incised character, Selakonos

Fig. 7. — Signs on bronze axe from Delphi

Fig. 8. — Engraved amethyst from Knosos

Fig. 9. — Signs on blocks of Mycenaean building, Knosos

Fig. 1 0. — Block at Phaestos with engraved signs

Figs. 11a, 116. — Engraved whorl from Phaestos

Fig. 12. — Button-seal with linear signs, Phaestos

Fig. 13, — Engraved button-seal, Messara

Fig. 14. — Terracotta pendant from cave of Idaean Zeus

Fig. 15. — Engraved disk-bead, Knosos ...

Fig. 16.— Steatite pendant, Arvi

Figs. 17a, 176. — Perforated steatite. Central Crete

Figs. 18a, 186. — Steatite relief, Messara

Fig. 19. — -Inscribed steatite, Siphnos

Figs. 20a, 206. — Types of prism-shaped seals ...

Fig. 21. — -Convoluted seal-stone ... ...

Figs. 21 — 31. — Three-sided seal-stones with pictographs ... (290
Figs. 32 — 36. — Four-sided equilateral seal-stones with picto-
graphs ... ... ... ... ... ... (294-

Fig. 38. — Convoluted seal-stone with pictographs. Eastern Crete

Figs. 39 — 41. — Pictographic seal-stones of Mycenaean types...

Pictographic Symbols

Fig. 42. — Gem with spirals and palmettes, Goulas

Fig. 43. — Template symbol

Fig. 44. — Template symbol with palmetto

Fig. 44. — Outline of palmette formed by template

Figs. 46 — -47. — Diagrams illustrating use of template

Fig. 48. — Design formed by template ...

Fig. 49.

(273
(273
(278
(278
(278;
(279
(279
(280
(280
(281
(282
(283
(284
(285
(285
(286
(286
(286
(286
(287
(287
(288
(288
294) 2

297) 25
.. (298
... (299
(302—315) 33
... (319
,., (320;
... (320
... (320
... (321
... (322

-Egyptian scarabs, Twelfth Dynasty, and Early Cretan seal-
stones with designs derived from them ... ... ... (327

Fi". 50. — Steatite seal-stone with spiral relief from Hagios Onuphrios

deposit, Phaei-tos (328

TAOE
4
4

9
9
9

10
10
11
11
12
13
14
15
16
16
17
17
17
17
18
18
19
19
—25

-28
29
SO

-46
50
51
51
51
52
53

Fig.

51.-

Fig.

3. 52a

Fig.

53.-

Fig

54.-

Fig.

55.-

Fig.

56.-

Fig.

57.-

Fig.

58.-

Fig.

59.—

Fig.

60.—

Fig.

61.—

Fig.

62.—

Fig.

63.-

Fig.

64.—

Fig.

65.—

Fig.

66.—

Fig.

67.—

Fig.

68.-

Fig.

69.—

Fig.

70.—

Fig. 71.-

Fig. 72.-
Fig. 73.-
Fig. 74.-
Fig. 75.-

Fig. 76.-

Table I.-

Table II.-

Table III

iLLUSTEATIOlfS.

-Early compact type of triangular seal-stone, Class III.

, 526, 52c. — Types of primitive vases from Cretan seal-stones

-Triangular seal-stone bought at Smyrna

-Clay stamps from Early Italian deposits, (a) Pollera Cave,

Liguria, (b) Sanguineto Cave, Liguria, (c) Terramara of

Montale
-Early seal-stone, grey^^steatite, Praesos
-Early seal-stone, yellow steatite, spearman &c., Candia
-Early seal-stone, black steatite, Central Crete
-Early seal-stone, brown steatite, Crete
-Early seal-stone, lion-headed figure (Berlin) ...
-Early seal-stone, dark steatite, two figures &c., Central Crete
-Early seal-stone, black steatite, two-beaded figure, Crete ...
-Early seal-stone, greyish-yellow steatite, camel &c., Crete
-Early seal-stone, yellow steatite, Crete
-Early seal-stone, yellow steatite, Crete, ostrich &c.
■Early seal-stone, brown steatite. Central Crete, cock &c.
-Brown steatite, disk-bead, Kamares .. .
Green steatite, disk-bead, Crete, two figures
■Triangular bead-seal, Siteia ...
■Triangular bead-seal, three fish <fec., Berlin ...
•Triangular bead-seal, green steatite, Twelfth Dynasty motive

(fee. Central Crete...
•Triangular bead-seal, yellow steatite. Twelfth Dynasty

motive &c., Crete ...
Triangular bead-seal, black steatite, bull's head &c., Candia
■Triangular bead-seal, Hagios Omiphrios deposit, Phaestos . . .
■Black steatite seal with linear script from Lower Egypt . . .
Signs on potsherds at Tell-el-Hesy compared with Aegean

forms
■Inscription probably in Eteocretan language from Praesos,

in archaic Greek letters ...
-Cretan and Aegean linear characters compared with Aegean

signs found in Egypt and Cypriote forms
—Groups of linear symbols, from Crete, Mycenae, and

Siphnos
— Pictographs and linear signs compared with Cypriote and

Semitic parallels ...

(331) 62

(332) 63
(334) 65

THE HAGIOS O^^CJPHIIIOS DEPOSIT, ETC,
Fig. 77. — -White steatite scarab
Fig. 78. — Steatite scarab. Twelfth Dynasty

Fig. 79a, 796, 79c. — Steatite bead-seal

Fig. 80. — Steatite bead-seal with convoluted relief

Fig. 81a, 816, 81c. — Clay cylinder

Fig. 816is. — Dark steatite button- seal with Twelfth Dynasty motive

(336) 67

(337) 68

(338) 69

(339) 70

(340) 71

(341) 72
(341) 72

(341) 72

(342) 73

(343) 74

(344) 75
(344) 75

(344) 75

(345) 76
(345) 76
(347) 78

(351) 82

(355) 86

(349) 80

(353) 84

(365) 96

106
106
106
106
107
107

ILLUSTRATIONS. vii

PAGE

Fig. 82a, 826. — Eagle-shaped seal of green steatite ... 107

Fig. 83a, 836. — Eagle-shaped seal from Haurin ... ... 107

Fig. 84a, 846. — Steatite cone seal ... .. 107

Fig. 85a, 856. — Ivory cone seal 108

Fig. 86. — Ivory cone seal ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 108

Fig. 87. — Ivory cone seal ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 108

Fig. 88. — Steatite pendant 110

Fig. 89a-j.— Beads 109

Fig. 90. — Crjstal pendant mounted with gold ... ... ... ... 110

Fig. 91 — 94.— Gold ornaments 110

Fig. 95 — 96. — Bronze perforated objects plated with gold Ill

Fig. 966is.— Do. Steatite Ill

Fig. 97. — Bronze gold-plated object, perhaps hilt .. Ill

Fig. 98. — Gold terminal ornament ... ... ... ... ... ... Ill

Fig. 99. — Marble pendant in form of oenocho§ ... ... ... ... 112

Fig. 100. — Clay suspension vase with cover ... ... ... ... ... 112

Fig. 101. — Small clay suspension vase, Arvi ... ... ... ... ... 113

Fig. 102. — Cover of clay suspension vase ... ... ... ... ... 113

Fig. 103a, 1036.— Small spouted vase 113

Fig. 104. — Small vase for suspension ... ... ... ... ... ... 113

Fig. 105. — Horned object of brown bucchero ... ... ... ... ... 114

Fig. 106a. — Spouted vase painted yellow with terracotta stripes ... ... 114

Fig. 107. — Early painted pyxis .. . ... ... ,. ... ... 115

Fig. 108. — Early painted jar 115

Fig. 109. — Small limestone vessel, Phaestos ... ... ... ... ... 116

Fig. 110. — Variegated limestone vessel, Phaestos ... ... ... ... 117

Fig. 111. — Serpentine vessel on limestone pedestal of Fourth Dynasty

date, Ghizeh Museum ... ... ... ... ... ... 118

Fig. 112.- — Brown stone vase from Pinies near Elunta (Olous) ... ... 118

Fig. 113. — Grey steatite pot, Goulas 120

Fig. 114. — Steatite vase, Arvi 120

Fig. 115. — Steatite cup, cist-grave, Arvi ... ... ... ... ... 120

Fig. 116. — Steatite mug, cist-grave, Arvi ... ... ... ... ... 120

Fig. 117. — Steatite pot with cover, cist-grave, Arvi ... ... ... ... 121

Fig. 118. — Small limestone pot, Arvi ... ... ... ... ... 121

Fig. 119. — Banded limestone pot with cover, Arvi ... ... ,,. ... 121

Fig. 120.— Steatite lid. Twelfth Dynasty deposit, Kahun, Egypt 122

Fig. 121. — Steatite bowl, cave, Psychro, Crete ... 122

Fig. 122. — Limestone conglomerate pot, Chersonesos, Crete .. . ... ... 123

Fig. 123. — Foliated steatite vase, Milato 123

Fig. 124. — Marble ' idol,' Hagios Onuphrios deposit ... ... ... ... 125

Fig. 125. — Marble ' idol,' Hagios Onuphrios deposit 125

Fig. 126. — Marble ' idol,' Hagios Onuphrios deposit 125

Figs. 127a, 1276.— Small marble 'idol,' Phaestos 125

Fig. 128. — Marble ' idol,' Hagios Onuphrios deposit 125

Fig. 129.-- Marble 'idol,' Hagios Onuphrios deposit 126

viii ILLUSTEATIONS.

Fig. 130. — Marble 'idol' (female) Hagios Onuphrios deposit
Fig. 131. — Marble 'idol' (female) Hagios Onuphrios deposit
Fig. 132. — Head of marble 'idol,' Hagios Onuphrios deposit

Fig. 133.— Marble 'idol' (female) Siteia

Fig. 134.— Marble 'idol,' Siteia

Fig. 135. — Marble ' idol,' cist-grave, Amorgos ...

Fig. 136. — Stone mould from Selendj, Maeonia ... . .

Figs. 137a, 1376, 137c.— Lead figure and ornaments said to have been

found near Candia
Fig. 138. — Square-ended bronze dagger, Hagios Onuphrios deposit ...
Fig. 139. — Double-pointed bronze spear, Hagios Onuphrios deposit ...

PI. I. [xii.]. — Design of Mycenaean ceiling reconstructed with the aid
of the Goulas gem (Fig. 42) and the template symbol...

PAGE

126
126
126
128
128
129
133

134
135
136

At end

PKIMITIVE PICTOGEAPHS

AND A PRAE-PHOENICIAN SCKIPT, FROM

CEETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

[270] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT

PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND A PRAE-PHOENICIAN SCRIPT
FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

§ I. — Cretan Discoveries.

In the absence of abiding monuments the fact has too generally been loat
sight of, that throughout what is now the civilized European area there must
once have existed systems of picture-writing such as still survive among the
more primitive races of mankind. To find such ' pictographs ' in actual use
— the term is used in its most comprehensive sense to cover carvings on rocks
or other materials whether or not actually overlaid with colour — we must now
go further afield. Traces of such may indeed be seen on the rude engrav-
ings of some megalithic monuments like that of Gavr Innis, on the rock
carvings of Denmark, or the mysterious figures known as the Maraviglie
wrought on a limestone cliff in the heart of the Maritime Alps, to which
may be added others quite recently discovered in the same region.

In Lapland, where designs of this character ornamented the troll-drums
of the magicians till within a recent period, survivals of some of the traditional
forms may still be found to the present day, engraved on the bowls of their
reindeer-horn spoons. Of actual rock-paintings perfectly analogous to those of
Cherokees or Zulus, I have myself observed an example — consisting of
animals and swastika-like figures painted probably by early Slavonic hands
on the face of a rock overhanging a sacred grotto in a fiord of the Bocche
di Cattaro.

But the perishable nature of the materials on which picture-writing,
having for most part only a temporary value, was usually wrought has been
fatal to the survival of primitive European pictographs on any large scale.
If we had before us the articles of bark and hide and wood of early man in
this quarter of the globe or could still see the tattoo marks on his skin we
should have a very different idea of the part once played by picture-writing
on European soil. As it is, it is right- that the imagination should supply
the deficiency of existing evidence.

In the areas embraced by the older civilizations such as Egypt, Babylonia
and China, a different kind of influence has been at work, by which the void
caused by the disappearance of the more primitive materials may in a o-reat
measure be filled up. For there the early pictographic elements, such as we

2 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [271]

still find them among savage races, were, in the hands of priestly and official
castes, developed into a more complicated and exact system of writing, by
which however we are enabled in many cases to trace back the original
forms of the object selected. The same development from the simple
pictographic to the hieroglyphic or quasi-alphabetic stage might naturally
have been expected to have taken place in more than one European area
had it not been cut short by the invasion of the fully equipped Phoenician
system of writing.

Even as it is however, it must be allowed that there are strong a priori
reasons for believing that in the Greek lands where civilization put forth its
earliest blossoms on European soil, some such parallel evolution in the art of
writing must have been in the course of working itself out.

For we now know that in the South-Eastern part of our Continent
there existed long before the days of direct Phoenician contact an inde-
pendent form of culture which already as early as the first half of the second
millennium before our era might be regarded as in many respects the
equal contemporary of those of Egypt and Babylonia. In view of the
extraordinary degree of artistic and mechanical development reached by
the representatives of what is now conveniently known as the Mycenaean
civilization — at least as early, approximately speaking, as the seventeenth
century, B.C. — and the wide ramifications of their commerce, is it con-
ceivable, it may be asked, that in the essential matter of writing they
were so far behind their rivals on the Southern and Eastern shores of the
Mediterranean ?

There is moreover a further consideration which tends to make the
absence of any system of writing among the Mycenaean peoples still more
improbable. At the dawn of history Asia Minor, whether we regard the
predominant elements of its population from the point of view of race or of
culture, may be said to belong to Europe. Its area from the earliest times
of which we have any record was largely in the occupation of the great
Thraco-Phrygian race and its offshoots. Its prehistoric remains, as far as we
know them from Cyprus to the Troad, fit on to those of a large archaeological
area, the continuation of which may be traced over the island stepping-
stones of the Aegean to the mainland of Greece, while in the other direction
kindred forms extend along the Danubian system to reappear amongst the
pile-dwellings of Switzerland and Carniola, the terre-mare of the Po valley
and even in Ligurian caves. But it is on the Eastern borders of this wide
field of primitive culture that recent researches have brought to light the
principal seats of the higher form of early civilization conveniently known as
Hittite. Living in the Syrian and Cappadocian regions in the immediate
proximity of upper Mesopotamia, and almost in the highways as it were of old
Chaldean culture, its representatives yet show independent characteristics and
traditions, the sources of which seem to be drawn from the North or West.
And of these one of the most noteworthy is the possession of an original
system of hieroglyphic writing, the relics of which are scattered from the
banks of the Orontes to the Western shores of Anatolia. At a later date

B 2

[272] PEIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCEIPT

again we find the Greeks of Cyprus and the inhabitants of a large tract of
Asia Minor in the possession of syllabic scripts altogether distinct from
Phoenician alphabet.

When it is once realized how largely the early civilization of the Aegean
Islands and even the mainland of Greece was evolved out of similar
elements to those of Asia Minor, it must certainly seem surprising that on
this side no system of writing belonging to prae-Phoenician times should as
yet have been clearly ascertained. The geographical contiguity to Anatolia,
and the early trade relations which can be shown to have existed between the
Aegean Islands and the valley of the Nile would assuredly, it might be
thought, have given an impulse to the higher development of whatever
primitive form of picture-writing was already to be found amongst the
inhabitants of this Mediterranean region. It is impossible indeed to suppose
that this European population was so far below even the Red Indian stage
of culture as not to have largely resorted to pictography as an aid to memory
and communication. And — even if an existing system was not perfected under
the influence of foreign example — the race which laid the arts of Egypt and
Western Asia under such heavy contribution was at least capable of borrowing
and adapting a system of writing.

It is true that Schliemann's great discoveries at Mycenae produced
nothing that could be safely interpreted as a form of script. The objects
seen in the field of many of the ordinary Mycenaean gems — the
so-called 'island-stones' — are simply inserted as the space left by the
principal design suggests, and are primarily of a decorative character — and
due to the horror vacui of primitive art. Nevertheless, especially when we
see a part standing for a whole — as a branch for a tree or the head of an
animal for the animal itself — it may be fairly said that many of these gems do
bear the impress of people familiar with the expedients of primitive picture-
writing, such as we find it still in so many parts of the world. The lentoid
and amygdaloid gems in question did not, as we now know, serve the purpose
of seals, but were simply ornamental beads worn round the wrist or neck.^
Like the oriental periapts, however, worn in the same manner at the present
day, they may often have been intended to serve as amulets or talismans ; and
both the principal type of the intaglio and the smaller or abbreviated forms
introduced into the field may have possessed something beyond a mere
artistic significance. Still more is this likely to have been implied in the
case of the engraved designs on the besils of the gold rings from the
Mycenaean graves which seem actually to have served the purpose of signets.
It certainly is not unreasonable to suppose that in this case some of
the smaller objects in the field may have had a conventional relio-ious mean-
ing, and that they were in fact ideographs taken from a recognized hiero-
glyphic code. The bulls' heads and lions' scalps, the ears of corn and double

^ See Tsoimtas, 'Ava(iKa<pa,\ Ti.<puv iv MuK-/i- to this rule in case of some Cretan lent 'rl
vms. 'E(l>. 'Apx- 1888, p. 175. There are presenting groups of symbolic figures °^ ^"""^
probably, as will be seen below, some exceptions

4 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [273]

axe certainly suggest that we have here to deal with symbols of divinity,
perhaps standing for the divinity itself, or ideas of cult and sacrifice, — the
latter form of symbolism being well brought out by the gold ornaments
representing oxes' heads with a double axe between the horns. In the
same way, to take an example from the practice of modern savages, a drawing
of eyes and beak stood among the Iroquois for the Thunder-Bird or a rayed
head for a Spirit among the Ojibwas. The whole of later Greek symbolism
may in fact be regarded as a survival, maintained by religious conservatism,
from a wide field of primitive pictography. The figure that stands as the
personal badge of the names of individuals at times actually appears as the
equivalent of the written form of the name, as when a monetary magistrate
called Leon places a lion on his dies. The same symbolic script is frequent
in the rendering of city names, one of the most interesting examples being
found on a coin of Mesembria where the part of the civic legend signifying
day is supplied by a swastika — the emblem of the midday sun.^

The symbols on the Mycenaean seals are themselves of too isolated
occurrence to be used straight away as examples of a hieroglyphic system —
though there seem to me to be good reasons for supposing that some at least
among them did fit on to such a system. But more recently one or two
objects have been found at Mycenae itself and in Mycenaean deposits else-
where which are calculated more effectually to shake some of the preconceived
notions of archaeologists as to the non-existence in Greece of a prae-Phoenician
system of writing. The most important of these are the handle of a stone
vase apparently of a local material (Fig. 1) found at Mycenae, which has

Fig. 1.— Signs on Vase-Handle, Mycenae.

four, or perhaps five, signs engraved upon it, and the handle of a clay
amphora from a chambered tomb in the lower town of Mycenae with three

Fig. ?. — Signs on Amphoka-Handie, Mycenae.

characters (Fig. 2). Single signs have also been noticed on the handles of
two amphoras of the same form as the last found in the Tholos tomb of

2 P. Gardner, Num. Ohron. 1880, p. 59 ; Head, Hist. Mm. 237.

[274] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCEIPT

Menidi,-^on a three-handled vase from Nauplia* and a stone pestle from
Mycenae.' Dr. Tsountas in describing these finds lays stress on then
occurrence in two cases in groups of three and four respectively, an
ably asks whether we have not here to deal with some form of ^^ ,^'^^'
Professor Petrie again has discovered a series of isolated symbols on what he
considers to have been fragments of early Aegean pottery discovered by him
at Gurob in a deposit which he assigns to the period of the Twelfth Dynasty,
and again at Kahun amongst Eighteenth Dynasty relics.*

Notwithstanding these indications, however, the last writer on the
Mycenaean and early Aegean culture, M. Perrot, sums up the evidence as
follows : ' The first characteristic which attracts the historian's notice when
he tries to define the prae-Homeric civilization is that it is a stranger to the
use of writing. It knows neither the ideographic signs possessed by Egypt
and Chaldaea nor the alphabet properly so called which Greece was afterwards
to borrow from Phoenicia.' He admits indeed that some of the marks
recently observed on the vase-handles bear resemblance to letters, either
Greek or Cypriote, but observes that they do not seem to form words, and
that they are perhaps nothing more than the marks of the potter or the
proprietor, or ignorant copies of Phoenician or Asianic characters. 'As at
present advised,' he concludes, ' we can continue to affirm that for the whole
of this period, nowhere, neither in the Peloponnese nor in Greece proper, no
more on the buildings than on the thousand objects of luxui-y or domestic use
that have come out of the tombs, has there anything been discovered which
resembles any kind of writing.' ^

The evidence which J am now able to bring forward will, I venture to
think, conclusively demonstrate that as a matter of fact an elaborate system
of writing did exist within the limits of the Mycenaean world, and moreover
that two distinct phases of this art are traceable among its population. The
one is pictographic in character like Egyptian hieroglyphics, the other linear
and quasi-alphabetic, much resembling the Cypriote and Asianic syllabaries.

In the course of a visit to Greece in the spring of 1893 I came across
some small three- and four-sided stones perforated along their axis, upon which
had been engraved a series of remarkable symbols. The symbols occurred
in groups on the facets of the stones, and it struck me at once that they
belonged to a hieroglyphic system. They were however quite distinct from

3 Tsountas, MriKiivai p. 213. One has a sign marks (see below, p. 282) M. Perrot had previ-

reserabling the Greek TT, the other, dp tlie ously admitted {op. cit. 461) that the Cypriote

Cypriote, pa, ha, or pTia. signs may have had an Aegean extension ' during

* 'Apxa'o\oyiKhp AeXrlov, 1892, p. 73. It a certain time. ' But the subsequent pa.ssage on

was discovered by Dr. Stais in a tomb of the p. 985 retracts this admission as far as the My-

T'riinoea. On each handle was engraved a sign cenaean period is concerned. Dr. Reichel sng-

like the Greek H but with offshoots from the gests {Homerischc Waffen, p. 142) that . the

top of the upright strokes. linear designs below the combatants on the silver

■'■ npa/cTi/ca T^s'Apxo'o^or'K^s'ETaipfas, 1889, fragment from Mycenae ('E</>. 'Apx- 1891, PI.

p. 19. « See below, p. 348. II. 2) are signs of an unknown script. But the

' Yen-otctC]\i\s\c7., La Orice primitive: I'Art figures in question represent throwing-sticks

Miieenien, p. 985. In describing the KiiOsian (J.II.S. xiii. (1892-3), p. 199, n. 11a).

6 JPEOM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [275]

Egyptian in character, and though they seemed to show a nearer approach to
Hittite forms it was evident that they belonged to an independent series.
My inquiries succeeded in tracing these to a Cretan source. . Knowing of
the considerable collection of ' island ' and other early gems in the Museum
of Berlin, I addressed myself to Dr. Furtwangler, mentioning my discovery
and asking whether any specimens of the forms and characters indicated
existed in the Imperial Museum. In response to my inquiries Dr.
Furtwangler very courteously sent me several impressions from similarly
formed stones in the Berlin Museum, presenting symbols which fitted on to
and supplemented the series that I had already obtained. In this case too
the source of the stones, as far as it was known, turned out again to be Crete.
The impression of a gem taken at Athens some years since by Professor
Sayce and kindly placed by him at my disposal supplied a new piece of
evidence, and I found that an unclassed four-sided stone in the Ashmolean
Museum, which had been brought back by Mr. Greville Chester from Greece,
noted by him as having been found at Sparta but really from Crete,''' was
engraved with symbols belonging to the same series as the others.

The evidence as a whole however clearly pointed to Crete as the
principal source of these hieroglyphic forms, and I therefore determined to
follow up my investigations on Cretan soil. Landing at Candia early in
March 1894, I made my way round the whole centre and East of the island, —
including the mountainous districts of Ida and Dikta, the extensive central
plain of Messara and the sites of over twenty ancient cities. The number
of relics illustrative of the prehistoric periods of Cretan culture that I was
thus able to collect was surprisingly great, and in particular the evidence
daily accumulated itself of the very important part played by the
Mycenaean form of civilization in Cretan story. And, in what regarded the
more special object of my quest, my researches were well rewarded by the
discovery in situ of traces of a prae-Phoenician system of writing in the
island, of which two distinct phases were perceptible, one pictorial and
hieroglyphic, the other linear and quasi-alphabetic.

From indications obtained at Candia I was led more particularly to
investigate the Eastern part of the island and the land which to the borders
of the historic period was still occupied by the Eteocretes or indigenous
Cretan stock. Here by the site of Praesos, their principal city, has been
discovered a remarkable inscription,^ which, though written in archaic
Greek characters, belongs to an unknown language which we may reasonably
regard as the original speech of the Cretan natives before the days of the
Greek colonization. This fact by itself renders investigations into the
antiquities of this easternmost district of special ethnographic value, and
here too may some day b& discovered the remains of the shrine of the
Diktaean Zeus, mentioned byStrabo as existing in the territory of Praesos.

At Praesos itself, which lies on a conical limestone hill near the modern
village of Vav^Ies I observed, besides its primitive walls of rude horizontal

'■'' See below, p. 136. * See below, pp. 354, 355.

[276] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT '

and polygonal masonry, fragments of very early pottery, some of which
must be classed with the ceramic relics of the first prehistoric city of
Hissarlik, while others belonged to the Mycenaean style. I further obtained
from a peasant on the spot a prism-shaped stone of the kind of which I was
in search, presenting engraved characters (see below. Fig. 29), and subse-
quently from the same district three other three- and four-sided stones with
linear and hieroglyphic symbols (see below. Figs. 22, 26, 38). On the site
called Palaekastro, the akropolis of which lies on the easternmost cove of
the island, opposite the islet of Grandes, and which represents another
ancient city, perhaps Grammion, that was situate between the territories of
Praesos and Itanos in the same Eteocretan region, I secured another
four-sided stone (see below. Fig. 35), presenting no less than fifteen hiero-
glyphic symbols. Two other stones of the same pictographic class found in
Eastern Crete (see below, Figs. 23, 24) also came into my possession, and I
further succeeded in tracing to the province of Siteia, in which the sites of
both Praesos and Itanos are included, two interesting examples which I
had observed in the collection of the Archaeological Society in the Polytech-
nion at Athens (see below, Figs. 32, 36). In gems of the ordinary Mycenaean
class I found the whole of this Eteocretan district to be specially prolific.

In my search after these minor relics of antiquity, often, it may be
remarked, of greater archaeological importance than far more imposing
monuments, I was greatly aided by a piece of modern Cretan superstition.
The perforated gems and seal-stones, so characteristic of Mycenaean and still
earlier times, are known to the Cretan women as ydX.6TreTpa<; or 'milk-
stones,' and are worn round their necks as charms of great virtue especially
in time of child-bearing. It was thus possible by making a house-to-house
visitation in the villages to obtain a knowledge of a large number of early
engraved stones, and though I was not always able to secure the objects
themselves, on account of the magic power that was supposed to attach to
them, I was in nearly all cases enabled to carry off an impression of the stone.
Engraved stones of other types, to be described more in detail below, with
pictographic symbols, were procured by me from the neighbourhood of
Knosos and the Messark district, and others of uncertain provenience were
obtained in Candia.

The seal-stones with the linear type of symbols I found to have an
equally wide distribution in the island. Two stones from the Praesos district
(Figs. 29, 36), of the same angular form as those with the pictographic charac-
ters, present symbols of this ' alphabetic ' class. They were the first of this
type that I came across, and the discovery was the more gratifyino- that on
the ground of distinct resemblances in outline between simplified forms of
some of the hieroglyphs observed by me in the preceding year and certain
Cypriote characters, I had already ventured to predict that the pictorial
forms would be found to fit on to a linear syllabary like the Asianic.^ But

" I made this forecast in a brief announce- glyphs communicated by me to the Hellen"
ment of the existence of the Cretan hiero- Society in 1893,

8 FROM CRETE AND THE PEL0P0NNE8E. [277]

here such linear characters were actually occurring, and engraved moreover
on triangular and quadrangular stones identical with those presenting the
pictorial types.

In the case of these quasi-alphabetic forms I was able to ascertain their
application to other objects and materials. Of all the remains of ancient
cities that I visited during my Cretan journey the most wonderful were those
of Goulds, as the site is at present known, lying on and between two
peninsular heights, a few miles away from the sea on the Eastern side of the
Province of Mirabello. Its natural haven would have been the port of St.
Nicolas, in ancient times the harbour town of Latos, but the remains at
Goul&,s itself are, so far as I was able to observe them, so exclusively
prehistoric that there seems no reason to suppose that it was ever occupied
by a later Greek settlement. The remains themselves are stupendous. Wall
rises within wall, terrace above terrace, and within the walls, built of the
same massive blocks of local limestone in rudely horizontal tiers, the lower
part of the walls of the houses and buildings are still traceable throughout.
The site had been observed by Spratt,^" but so incompletely was it known
that I discovered here a second and higher akropolis with remains of
primitive buildings on the summit, one containing, besides a fore-court, a
chamber with antae recalling the ground-plan of more than one Megaron of
the sixth or Mycenaean stratum of Hissarlik.^i The whole site abounds
with primaeval relics, stone vessels of early ' Aegean type,' bronze weapons
and Mycenaean gems, of which I secured either the original or the
impressions of no less than seventeen examples. In the mass of remains
existing above ground, the ruins of Goulks exceed those of any prehistoric
site, either of Greece or Italy, and there cannot be a doubt that we are
here in presence of one of the principal centres of the Mycenaean world.

Whilst exploring the remains of this unknown city a most
remarkable piece of epigraphic evidence came across my path. A peasant
who owned a little cultivated patch below the Northern akropolis, near the
ruinous Byzantine Church of Hagios Andonis, pointed out a spot where he
had just discovered three ancient relics which he handed over to me. One
was a Mycenaean lentoid gem of cornelian, the chief design of which was
a two-handled cup, the copy no doubt of a golden original, beside which
in the field of the intaglio was a rayed sun and a spray of foliage. The
second object was a terracotta ox (Fig. 3) of a type common in late
Mycenaean deposits throughout the island, similar examples having been
found in the cave of the Idaean Zeus, in that of Psychro in the heart of
Mt. Lasethe and in another grotto near Sybrita in company with early bronzes.
The third object was a clay cup (Fig. 4) which looked as if it had originally

10 Spratt (.Travels in Crete, ii. 129 seqq.) PI. IT. VI. A, VI. B, VI. C, and VI. G. From

wrongly identified Goulks with the ancient the recurrence of the ground-plan Dr. Dorp-

Oleros, the site of which is now known to be at feld rightly observes that the first-discovered

Messeleri (Halbherr), also confusing it with foundations VI. A, like the others, rather

Olous (Elunta). represent a Megaron than a Temple,

» See Ddrpfeld, Troja, 1893, p. 15 senq. and

[278]

PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT

Fig. 3. — Tekeacotta Ox, Gotjlas (J linear).

Fi(! 4.— Clay Cup with Incised Ciiakaotees, GouUs.

=|:~f-

Fio. 4i.— Characters on Goulas Cup,

FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

[279]

been intended for a vase, but had been rudely and unevenly cut down before
the clay ^vas baked. Its surface had originally been covered by a dark
varnish. But its special interest lay in the fact that on one side just below
the rim are three graffito characters, the two latter of which are identical
with the Cypriote im and lo (Fig. 46). Another peasant brought me from
a neighbouring hamlet called Prodromos Botzano a plain terracotta vase of
primitive aspect (Fig. 5), with a suspension handle and incised hatching

Pig^ s.^Yase with Incised Charactebs, Pbodeoiios Botzano.

round its neck, which showed on its body three more graffito symbols of the
same kind. One of these seemed to represent the double axe-head which
occurs among the hieroglyphic forms reduced to a linear outline, while the
last, as in the case of the former example, was identical with the Cypriote
lo (Fig. 56). From Goul&,s itself I also obtained a perforated steatite

/V>A

Fia. 5&.— Charaoteks on Vase fro.m Prodromos Botzais-o.

ornament nearly worn through with use, the face of which was also engraved
with three linear marks of a more uncertain nature. It was found near the
spot -whence the inscribed cup and the other objects were derived.

[280]

PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT

-Nor are these linear signs confined to seals and pottery. <J)n a double-
headed bronze axe (Fig. 6), procured by me in the village of Kritsa, near the

Fio. 6.— Bkonze Axe with Incised Character, Selakonos (4 linear).

site of Goulks, but said to come from Selakonos, in the Eparchy of Girapetra, I
observed an engraved symbol much resembling one of the characters on the
Knosos blocks, to be described below (Fig. 9), and it is probable that other signs
will eventually be found engraved on bronze implements of Mycenaean date.
On a bronze axe from Delphi are engraved two symbols as sketched in
Fig. 7, the first of which looks like a rude outline of a duck or some other
aquatic bird.

Fig. 7.— Signs on Bronze Axe from Delphi.

The history and even the ancient name of Gouia,s are lost in the mist of
time, and the earliest traditions of the island point rather to Kn6sos, the
City of Minos, as the principal seat of power. But whatever may have been
the relative parts played by the two cities in prehistoric times, it is at any
rate certain that the same primitive system of writing was common to them
both.

From the site of Kn6sos I procured a three-sided steatite seal (Fig. 30)
of the same kind as those from the Eteocretan region, presenting both picto-
graphic and linear symbols, and also a heart-shaped jewel (Fig. 8) of amethyst
with four similar characters beneath a characteristically Mycenaean eneravinff
of a flying eagle. But at Knfisos the appearance of these linear symbols is bv
no means confined to seals and jewels. Already, in 1880, certain mysterious

12 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [281]

signs had been observed by Mr. W. J. Stillraan i^ on the gypsum blocks
that form the facing of the walls of a prehistoric building on this site,
which Mr. Stillman himself was inclined to identify with the legendary
Labyrinth. A native gentleman of Candia, Mr. Min6s Calochaerinos, had

Fig. 8.— Engraved Amethyst feom Knosos.

in 1878 made a partial excavation on this site and laid open some small
chambers in which were a quantity of fragments of Mycenaean painted
vases ^^ and a number of large pithoi containing traces of grain, from which
the place is now known to the peasants as ra Utrdpia. The fragments,
at present preserved in the house of their discoverer, where he kindly
allowed me to examine them, are in much the same style as those found
by Professor Petrie in the Palace of Akhenaten (' Khuenaten ') at Tell-el-
Amarna, and in the neighbouring rubbish heaps, — a parallel which gives
1400 B.C. as the approximate date for the building. Dr. Schliemann,^*
Professor Dorpffeld and Dr. Fabricius,^^ who all had occasion to examine
the small portion visible above ground, were struck by the great resemblance
presented by the details of the structure to those of the Palaces of Mycenae
and Tiryns. Professor Halbherr recalls the Andreion in which the citizens
of Crete used to meet together for their public meals or syssitia}^

Whether Labyrinth, Palace, or Andreion, it is evident that the prehistoric
building, as yet so imperfectly known to us, belongs to the great age of
Mycenae, and that its complete excavation may bring with it new revelations
as to the art and culture of the Aegean peoples in the middle of the second
millennium before our era. The symbols on the casing blocks of the walls,
first noticed by Mr.W. J. Stillman, do not appear to have attracted the attention
they seem to deserve, and have been set aside as mere ' masons' marks.'^'' I

^'^ Second Annual Report of the Executive '^ Verhandlungen dor Berliner Anthropolo-

Gmmnittee, Arch. Inst, of America, 1880 — 1881, gischen Gesellschaft, 1886, pp. 379 — 380.

pp. 47 — 49. Mr. Stillman's drawings have '^ Alterthumer auf Kreta, IV. Funde dcr

been reproduced in Perrot et Chipiez, Grice MyTcenaischen Epochs in Knossos {Athcnische

Primitive, pp. 460, 462. Mittheilungen, 1886, p. 135 seqq.).

'' Some of these were published by Haus- ^^ Researches in Crete, in the Antiquary,

soullier. Bulletin de Corr. SelUniqne, 1880, vol. xxviii. p. Ill (Sept. 1893).

pp. 124 — 127 and Remce Archiologique n.s. '' Dr. Fabricius in his account of the re-

xl. (1880), p. 359 seqq., cf. too Fabrioius, mains (Athen. Mitth. loc, cit.) does not even

Athen. Mittheilungen, 1886, p. 139 seqq. and mention them. M. Perrot indeed {La Grice

Taf. III. Primitive, p. 461), in spite of his strong ex-

[282]

PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT

paid two visits to these remains with the special object of examining these
signs, the second in company with Mr. Minos Calochaerinos and Proiessor
Halbherr. Those that I was able to observe are reproduced (Fig- S*^ ff)
from, ray own drawings, supplemented in the the case of Fig. 9h—^lc, now no
longer visible, by Mr. Stillman's copy. The signs occurring in pairs are
placed together. The conclusion at which I arrived was that, though there
need not necessarily be any objection to describing the signs as ' masons'
marks,' the marks themselves, like many others of the kind, those for

Fig. 9.— Signs on Blocks of Mycenaean Building, Knosos.

instance on the Phoenician walls of Eryx, are taken from a regular script
and fit on in fact to the same system as the characters on the pottery and
seals. In several cases indeed they occur not singly, as we should expect
in ordinary masons' marks, but in groups of two. Here was the double

prossion of opinion as to the non-existence of perceptible analogy lo Cypriote characters
any traces of a system of writing in Mycenaean (See above, p. 274, note 7.)
times, admits that two of the signs present a

FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

[283]

axe-head reduced to a linear symbol, the rayed stars of the hieroglyphs,
simplified to asterisks, and a window-like sign (Fig. 9. d, 1) that occurred
on the Goulas cup. One feature however was of special interest, the
occurrence namely on one of the blocks of a symbol (Fig. 9. /), which
may be described as a square with three prongs, identical with one that
appears on one of the two vase-handles, referred to above as presenting graphic
characters, found in Mycenae itself. Here we have an important link
between the early Cretan script and that of the Peloponnese.

It is to be observed that this sign occurs on the stone, as in ray sketch,
upside down, and were it not from its appearance on the Mycenaean amphora,
we should not have known its right position. In the same way the double-
axe symbol occurs on the blocks in three different positions. The natural
inference from this is that the signs were engraved on the blocks previous to
their insertion in the walls of the building.

The incised marks on the slabs of the Knosian building do not any
longer stand alone. Professor Halbherr writes to me from Candia, that he
has observed, ' fixed into a terrace- wall on the site of Phaestos,' a curious block
on which has been engraved, together with two doubtful signs, a kind of
broad arrow (Fig, 10) recalling one of the most frequent symbols both on the

Fig. 10. — Block at Phaestos with Engeavbd Signs.

hieroglyphic and linear series of the seals.'"' He observes of this sign that
not only from its regularity, but from the depth of the groove, it was in his
judgment executed with a chisel. This stone lies in the neighbourhood of a
spot where a very remarkable early deposit was discovered, containing en-
graved stones and other objects, to which it will be necessary to return when
we come to consider the question of the date of the early seal-stones.''''=

The objects obtained from this deposit are now placed together in the
very interesting little Museum which has been formed by the Cretan Syllogos
or Literary Society at Candia (Heraklion), mainly owing to the enterprise

^'■'^ This block is fixed into the supporting
wall of a iield belonging to Manolis Aposto-
akis to the right of the road leading from

Mires to Dibaki and opposite the Akropolis of
Phaestos. Its height is 0'54m., length 0'70.
"■<: See below, p. 325.

[284]

PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT

and research of its President, Dr. Joseph Hazzidaki, whose services to
Cretan archaeology deserve the widest recognition. Amongst these are
two stones exhibiting engraved signs. One of these, a kind of irregular
whorl (Fig. 11a and &), convex above and flat below, presents on its lower side

Fig. 11a. —Engraved Whoel from
Phaestos (2 diams.).

Fig. IIJ.

characters so remarkably alphabetic that they might well be taken to belong
to much later times — Byzantine, for instance.

But the evidence against this view must be regarded as decisive. The
H and A are both found among the early marks observed by Professor Petrie
on the Kahun pottery ; read another way the X is a Cypriote ve. On the
upper side of this whorl (Fig. 11a) is seen a rude engraving of a horned
animal — probably a bull or ox — which is quite in the style of the animal
representations of a series of very early Cretan intaglios.^^ This figure
is followed by a peculiar symbol and, what is extremely remarkable,
on the lower side of the stone the same symbol recurs in immediate
juxtaposition to what appears to be the bull's or ox's head reduced to a
linear form.^" The engraving of the upper and lower side of the stone seems
to be by the same hand. The material itself, a greenish steatite, and the
irregular form both occur moreover in the case of another inscribed stone
from Siphnos to be described below, bearing letters showing a very marked
affinity with Cypriote. Again, every other object from the deposit in which
this inscribed whorl was found seems to be of very early fabric.^®'' The prima
facie view of the characters on this curious stone might easily lead to the
conclusion that it was of much later date. But the early, irregular form
and material, the rude animal, the curious association of signs unknown to
the later Greek alphabet, and the place of finding point to an antiquity
corresponding with that of the other relics from the same sepulchral
stratum.

From the same deposit was obtained a button-like pendant of black

18 I may specially cite a rudely triangular Compare too the animal on Fig. 18a.

steatite, with a horned animal in a very primi- '" See below, p. 364-366.

tive style, found with other early pendants in '"'' See below, p. 104 scqg.
a grave of prae-Mycenaean date at Milato.

FKOM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

[285]

steatite engraved with linear signs (Fig. 12) and a sketch of another object
of the same class has been kindly placed at my disposal by Professor
Halbherr. The object in question (Fig. 13) is of a green stone somewhat more
regularly formed than the other and shows on its face a K-like character,

Fio. 12 (2 diams.).

though it is uncertain which way up the sign should be set. It was found
by Dr. Halbherr in a necropolis of the last Mycenaean period in Messara
consisting of oven tombs, but the pendant itself may possibly belong to a
still older stratum.

Fig. 13.— Engkaved 'Button-Seal,' Messaea (2 diams.).

My attention has been further called by Dr. Hazzidaki to a perforated
terracotta object, apparently also a kind of pendant (Fig. 14), with an
incised symbol consisting of a horizontal line with two cross-strokes, like the
Cypriote J5a turned on its side, from the cave of the Idaean Zeus. On a perfor-
ated disk from the site of Knosos (Fig. 15) there occurred a sign like a
Cypriote po. From one of a series of early cist-graves at Arvi (Arbi), on the
South-East coast of the island, containing stone vessels and other relics of prae-
Mycenaean date I obtained a green steatite pendant (Fig. 16) with two linear
symbols, one on each side, curiously resembling an Alef dia.A Gimel. Fig. 17,
from Central Crete, a perforated triangular steatite of irregular form, also
shows on two of its faces curious linear signs. Fig. 18a and 6 is a dark
brown steatite ornament from the Messar^. district, having on both sides of

[286]

PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT

Fio. U.— Teuracotta Pendant feom Cave op Idaean Zeus.

Fig. 15.— Engraved Disk-Bead, Kn6sos (2dianis.).

Fio. 16.— Steatite Pendant, Arvi (2 diams.).

Fro. 17rt. — Pehfohatrd Steatite,
Centjial C'eete (2 diams.).

FROM CRETE AND THE tELOPONNESE.

[287]

Fie. 18«.

Fig. 18J.— Steatite Relief, MessaeA. (2 diains.).

Fig. 19.— Siphnos.

[238] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 19

it figures in relief. On one side are what appear to be two primitive repre-
sentations of animals, the style of one of which recalls the ox on the
Praesos disk, while on the other face are two tortoises and an uncertain
symbol grouped together like some of the pictographs on the triangular
seals to be described below.

To these Cretan examples I may add a pale green perforated steatite
(Fig. 19) from Siphnos, in material somewhat resembling the Phaestos disk,
one side of which is engraved with characters of curiously Cypriote aspect.

§ II. — The Facetted Stones with Pictographic and Linear Symbols.

As forming a group by themselves it has been found convenient to
reserve the detailed examination of the facetted stones presenting picto-
graphic symbols for a separate section, and at the same time to place with
them the prism-shaped seals of the same type with more linear characters.

Another form of bead-seal and two examples of lentoid gems with picto-
graphic groups are also added.

The facetted stones themselves are of three principal types, all of them
perforated along their major axis.

I. — Three-sided or prism-shaped (Fig. 20 a and V). This type is divided
into two varieties — one elongated (a) the other more globular (/3).

Fig. 26a.— (2 diams.). Fig. 206.~(2 diaius.).

If. —Four-sided equilateral.

III. — Four-sided with two larger faces.

IV. — With one engraved side, the upper part being ornamented with a
convoluted relief (Fig 21).

Fig. 21.— (2 diams.).

20 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [2891

This form may perhaps be regarded as a later development of an earlier
type of Cretan bead, the upper part of which is carved into the shape of
two Nerita shells lying end to end with a common whorl, a specimen of
which was found in the Phaestos deposit above referred to.

The other stones, which are of ordinary Mycenaean forms including the
lentoid type, are grouped with the above as Class V. The figures are taken
from casts, so that, assuming that the originals were seals, this gives the
right direction of the symbols. In some cases however it is not easy to
decide which way up the impression should be shown, and the order in
which the sides are arranged is for the most part arbitrary. When one side
presents a single type of an evidently ideographic character it has been given the
first place, and at times a boustrophedon arrangement seems to be traceable.
In Fig. 23 for instance, the first side seems to run from right to left, the
second from left to right, and the third again from right to left. The
drawings were executed by Mr. F. Anderson with the guidance of magnified
photographs from casts, and the stones are in all cases enlarged to two
diameters. Effects due to the technique of the early gem-engraver's art,
such as the constant tendency to develop globular excrescences, must
be mentally deducted from the pictographs. Unless otherwise indicated, the
stones or their impressions were obtained in Crete by the writer.

[290]

PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT

Glass I.
Three-sided or Prism-shaped.

A. (Fig. 21). — Brown steatite. Crete. Uncertain locality.

B, (Fig. 22). — Green jasper. ProvmCe of Siteia, Crete,

.FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESB.

[291]

23a.

C. (Fig. 23). — White cornelian. Eastern Crete.

24«.

24*.
Fig. 24.

24c

£>. (Fig. 24). — White cornelian. Eastern Crete.

asc.

jr. (Fig. 25). — Crete. (Berlin Museum.)

[292]

PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT

26c.

26a.

i''. (Fig. 26). — Red cornelian. Crete. Province of Siteia.

ilc.

27o.

G. (Fig. 27). — Brown steatite. Crete. Uncertain locality.

Sides h and c contain what appear to be purely decorative designs.

28c.

28J.

Fig. 2S.

28«.

H. (Fig. 28).— Steatite. Crete. Uncertain locality.

bMlOM CKETE AND THE PELOPONNESK.

[293]

/. (Fig. 29) White steatite. Praesos.

Fig. 306. J'ig. 30c.

Fig. 30.

/. (Fig. 30).— Grey steatite, Knosos, (From a sketch.)

[294]

PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT

K. (Pig. 31). — This stone belongs to the more globular typo, Class I. 6.
Crete. (Berlin Museum.)

Glass II.
Four-sided Equilateral Stones.

32(«.

Z2c, 32J

Fig. 32.

32f«.

A. (Fig. 32). — Red cornelian. Crete (Ashmolean Museum ; Mr.
Greville Chester; wrongly labelled as 'from Sparta,' see p. 136).

FROM CRETE AND THE PEL0P0NNE8E.

[295]

B. (Fig. 33). — Crete. Province of Siteia. (Polytechnion, Athens.)

|2J6]

PEIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT

G. (Fig. 34).— Crete. (Berlin Museum.)

PROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

1297

sy^ ^

^ggLS-r^J

35n,

356.

\r-^

iSfS Vj ^

35(?.

A^.^

\\l¥

35<«.
Fig. 35.

i>. (Fig 35). — Green jasper. Crete. Palaekastro, near site of Itanos.

K (Fig. 36). — Steatite. Province of Siteia. (Polytechnion, Athens.)
Sides a and c contain decorative designs.

[298]

PRIMITIVE PICTOGHAPHS AND SCRIPT

Class III.

Four-sided Stones with Two Larger Faces.

Fig. 37.

37i.

A. (Fig. 37). — Green steatite. Central Crete. This stone properly
belongs to an earlier class.

Class IV.

Stones with a Single Face: the Upper Part Convoluted.

Fio 38.
A. (Fig. 38).— White cornelian. Eastern Crete.

PROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

Glass V.
Stones of Ordinary Mycenaean Type.

[299]

Fig. 39.

A. (Fig. 39). — From impression taken by Professor Sayce at Athens.
This form of gem was in use for the besils of rings iu Mycenaean times.

Fig. 40,

B. (Fig. 40). — Brown steatite. Knosos. This and the following are
ordinary types of perforated lentoid bead but of very early fabric.

Fio, 41.
C. (Fig. 41). — Black steatite. MessarJi district.

[:500] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 31

§ III.— Evidences of a Pictographic Script.

It is impossible to believe that the signs on these stones were simply
idle figures carved at random. Had there not been an object in grouping
several signs together it would have been far simpler for the designer to have
chosen single figures or continuous ornament to fill the space at his disposal.
As it is, single figures or continuous ornament are occasionally introduced on
the vacant sides of stones where it was not necessary to cover the whole
stone with symbolic characters ; and in the same way small ornamental forms
are found in some cases filling, for decorative purposes, the spaces between
the symbols. In Fig. 22 one side is purely decorative; in Figs. 27 and 36,
two sides, and such features as the small chevrons in the vacant spaces of
Fig. 31c, or the network behind the designs on Figs. 33a and 34c and d,
are obviously supplementary ornaments. But these extraneous features only
bring out more clearly the fact that the signs themselves are introduced
with a definite meaning, and are in fact a form of script. A method and
intention in the choice and arrangement of the symbols is moreover percep-
tible, quite incompatible with the view that they are mere meaningless
ornaments.

The signs themselves are chosen from a conventional field. Limited as
is the number of stones that we have to draw from, it will be found that
certain symbols are continually recurring as certain letters or syllables or
words would recur in any form of writing. Thus the human eye appears four
times and on as many different stones, the 'broad arrow' seven times, and
another uncertain instrument (No. 16 of the list given in the succeeding
section) as much as eleven times. The choice of symbols is evidently
restricted by some practical consideration, and while some objects are of
frequent occurrence, others equally obvious are conspicuous by their absence.
But an engraver filling the space on the seals for merely decorative purposes
would not thus have been trammelled in his selection.

Two other characteristics of hieroglyptic script are also to be noted. The
first is the frequent use of abbreviated symbols, such as the head for the
whole animal, the flower or spray for the plant. The second is the appear-
ance of gesture-language in graphic form — an invaluable resource of early
pictography for the expression of ideas and emotions. Amongst such may be
noted the human figure with arms held down (Fig. Mh), the crossed arms
with open palms and thumbs turned back (Fig. 31J), and, closely allied to
this, the bent single arm with open palm (Fig. ^M). Such features, again,
as the wolf's head with protruding tongue— also found on Hittite monu-
ments — or the dove pluming its wing, have probably a significance beyond
the mere indication of the animal or bird.

The symbols occur almost exclusively in groups of from two to seven •
the most frequent however are of two or of three, which seems to show that
the characters thus appearing had a syllabic value. Certain fixed prin-

32 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [301]

ciples, also, are traceable in the arrangements of the symbols in the
several groups. Some signs are almost exclusively found at the beginning or
the end of a line. The human eye appears thus three times out of four ; the
instrument No. 16 of the list below occupies the extremity of the group in
seven, or perhaps eight, cases where it occurs. The same two symbols more-
over are seen on different stones in the same collocation. Thus the horns and
four-rayed star occur in close proximity on the stones (Fig. 235 and 326)
from Crete. The instrument (No. 16) above referred to occurs five times
on as many different stones in collocation with the ' broad arrow.' The arrow-
head, again, is twice placed beside the y-like sign No. 54 (Figs. 236 and
35a). In four cases where the bent leg makes its appearance (Figs. 226,
2oa, 346 and Supplement, p. 136), it is in immediate contiguity with
a symbol that seems to stand for a door or gate. Such collocations in the
small number of instances at our disposal are alone sufficient to exclude the
supposition that the signs on these stones were engraved haphazard for
decorative purposes.

It further appears, when we come to file the several columns, as on the
Babylonian principle they would follow one another in the impression of a
seal, that in several cases a boustrophedon arrangement has been adopted
which recalls that of early Greek writing. This is specially noticeable in
Figs. 22, 23, 33, as well as in Fig. 34, where by the analogy of other Myce-
naean gems from Crete representing ships the vessel must be taken as
going in the direction in which the oars slope. It seems usual to begin from
right to left.

That these seals were designed to convey information regarding
their owners in a primitive form of writing is clearly brought out by
another phenomenon with which we have to deal. On Fig. S6d the place
of the pictographic symbols is taken by linear characters which no one
will deny represent actual letters, and which fit on in fact to an Aegean or
Mycenaean syllabary the existence of which can be demonstrated from inde-
pendent sources. This phenomenon must certainly be taken to throw a
retrospective light on the hieroglyphic forms that replace the letters on the
bulk of these stones. It will be further shown in the course of this inquiry
that a certain proportion of these pictographic signs reduced to linear forms
actually live on in this Aegean syllabary.

In a succeeding section ^^^ attention will be called to a still earlier class
of Cretan seal-stones presenting for the most part the same typical tri-
angular form as those of Class I. already described. These more primitive
stones which cannot in fact be separated by any definite line of demarcation
from the later series, throw a valuable light on the original elements out of
which the more formalized pictographic system finally grew. In some cases
the same symbols are actually seen in a more primitive stage of development.
But on this earlier class the more purely pictorial and ideographic elements

19a See p. 324 segq. The stones, Figs. 21, 37, 39, 40, might perhaps with greater propriety
have hcen grouped with this earlier scries,

[302] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 33

are uaturally preponderant and the personal relation in wliicli the seals
stand to their owners is clearly revealed. They seem indeed to be descriptive
of his individual character as an owner of flocks and herds, a merchant, a
huntsman or a warrior.

These more naive delineations, of a ruder stage of culture, supply
a welcome clue to the interpretation of such ideographic elements as
survive in the more conventional forms with which we are at present
dealing. Here too we may often see a reference to the avocation or
profession of the owner of the seal and may venture to conclude that the
more purely symbolic characters have a personal application. Thus for
example Fig. 34, exhibiting at the beginning of one column a ship with
two crescent moons above it, may be reasonably supposed to have been the
signet of one who undertook long voyages. Fig. 24, with the pig and
door, would have belonged to some one who owned herds of swine : in which
case the two figures of the axe and kid on the other face may contain the
elements of the owner's own name. The fish at the head of Fig. 33
may indicate a fisherman. The seal-stone represented in Fig. 23, with the
adze and other implements — including one in which I have ventured to
recognize the template of a decorative artist, — probably belonged to a
member of a masons' guild. The harp on Fig. 31 suggests a musician. It
is possible that the individual element of ownership, which on the earlier
class is brought out by the complete human figure, may be elsewhere
indicated by the human eye alone, which is of frequent occurrence in
these stones.

§ IV. — Classification and Comparison of the Symbols.

In the following list I have included all the above signs that have any
claim to be regarded as of hieroglyphic value, excluding the small obviously
ornamental devices that are occasionally found filling in the space between
the symbols, but including one or two like the S-shaped figures that may
after all belong to the same decorative or supplemental category. It will be
seen from the arrangement adopted that the symbols, where it is possible to
recognize their meaning, fall into regular classes like the Hittite or the
Egyptian.

The Human Body and its Parts.

1 y Fig. 36Z). Ideograph of a man standing alone, with his arms

fW held downwards, perhaps denoting ownership. It is followed

II by linear characters on another facet of the stone. Human

^ *■ figures in this position are frequent on Cypriote cylinders.

A similar figure also occurs on a cone from Eamleh, near Jaffa, in the

Ashmolean Collection.

34 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [303]

Figs. 29a, ZU, 34&

,^^_^ . ^1^ ^,1^ and c, 356 and c, and

T©«C @) ® ^^- The eye appears

{a) (b) (c) W) (e) ^"''^'^^ ™ conjunction

^ ' ^ ^ with No. 16. As an
indication of meaning we may compare Egyptian c^^^ cm ; also deter-
minative of 'sight; 'watching,' &c. On the Hittite monuments the eye
does not seem to be separately portrayed. On the inscriptions of Hamath
and Jerabis (Wright, Emp. of the Hittites, PI. I. H. 1, line 1, and PL VIII. A.,
line 1) the upper part of a figure of a man is represented, with his finger
apparently pointing to his eye.

In the delineation of this symbol on the Cretan seal-stones, four distinct
stages are perceptible : (1) the whole eye with the lashes all round; (2) the
whole eye with the lashes fully drawn on two diagonal sides of the eye only,
elsewhere only faintly indicated ; (3) what appears to be an abbreviated form
of the latter type ; (4) the pupil and iris only, indicated by concentric circles.
In one case (Fig. 3.5) this latter type occurs on the same stone as the complete
eye in a place where it would have been impossible to insert the full
symbol.

It is, however, difficult to distinguish this latter simplified form, con-
sisting of concentric circles with or without a central dot, from what appears
to be a solar symbol. (See below. No. 62.)

Fig. 315. Another ideograph taken from gesture-language.
The sign may have indicated ' ten ' or any multiple of ten :
thus any great number. So far as the crossing of the
arms goes, the symbol may be compared with the two

confronted figures that occur twice on a Jerabis monument (Wright, op. cit.

PI. IX.).

4 # Fig- S^*^- -^^^^ ^ gesture-sign. The Egyptian open hand

B j^ indicates a palm measure. The forepart of the arm with

^^""^^ open hand is seen on one of the Jerabis inscriptions

(Wright, op. cit. PL VIII. B. 1. 2). Compare, too, the hand and forearm

sculptured on a rock at Itanos above an archaic Greek inscription (Com-

paretti, Zeggi di Gortyna, &c., p. 442, No. 206).

Figs. 226, 25a, 346. The bent leg /^ in Egyptian = pat,
ret, men, &c., as a determinative, is V\ applied to actions
of the leg, as 'marching' and "^ 'approaching,' and
to agrarian measurements, as antra, ' an acre.' Among
Hittite symbols only the lower part of the leg is found, apparently

[304] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 35

booted. Cp. n Kolitolu Yaila. So far as style is concerned, the greatest
resemblance ti/ is presented by a bent human leg seen in the field of a gem
from the lower city of Mycenae (Tomb 10, 'E0. 'Apx- 1888, PI. X. 9).

»f

Fig. ^2d. Possibly = a rump.

Arms, Implements, and Instruments.

7 ^^ Fig. 326 and cf. 41. Kesembles an arm holding a curved
W instrument. As such it may be compared with the
^^^^^ Egyptian determinative jF^ ^ = a hand holding a

club (ne^t), applied to t — ■ J forcible action. The

forepart of the arm holding weapons or implements is common among Hittite
symbols.

8 ^^ A Fig. 246. The single axe occurs on early seal-stones in
^^Bm the Ashmolcan Collection, from Smyrna and N. Syria.
^^^1^ It is perhaps represented by a symbol on the Hittite

I' monument at Bulgar Maden (Ramsay and Hogarth, Fre-
hellenic Monumenta of Cappadocia, PI. II. line 2, near
middle). On an inscription from Jerabis (Wright, op. cit. PI. II. C. line 1,
and A. 1. 4) the axe seems to occur in combination with another object.
In Egypt the single axe is a sign of divinity. The present type of axe,
however, is altogether non-Egyptian.

Fig. 376. Perhaps an early form of double axe-head.

10 ^ ^ ^ Figs. 236, 39. The double axe is a form altogether
foreign to Egypt. As a Hittite hieroglyph it has been
recently detected on an inscription, and it is seen re-
peated in pairs on a Cypriote cylinder (Cesnola, Salaminia, Fig. 118, p.
128). It occurs as a symbol in the field of a Mycenaean gold ring
(Schliemann, Mycenae, Fig. 530, p. 354), where it has been connected with
the cult of Zeus Labrandeus. It also forms the principal type of some
Mycenaean gems found in Crete — one from near GirapetM, the other fiom
Goulas. Bronze axes of the above form are common iu the votive deposits of
the Cretan caves like that of the Idaean Zeus and of Psychro on Mount
Ivasethe (see above, Fig. 6).

^^ Ff^OM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [305]

,^P -^'g- '^^<^- The dagger symbol appears in two forms among

^tr Egyptian hieroglyphs, ± bakasu and 5o xaa. When it occurs

f among Hittite signs it V is grasped " by a hand (Hamath

Wright, op. cit. PI, III. H. iv. line 1, and Jerabis, o]}. cit. PI. XII.

Fig. I, 1. 2), The roundness of the pommel of the hilt on the Cretan sign is

probably simply due to the early gem-engraver's technique, which relies greatly

on the drill.

(ct) (h)

lean vase-handle (Fig

m.^ ^ . IV -^ig- 215. Arrow-head. The form I occurs on

a triangular stone of a somewhat earlier class

(see below, p. 344, Fig. 68), but is here inserted

W v>) for comparison. Compare, too, the sign on the

Mycenaean vase-handle (Fig. 1).

-. W ^ ;^ I ■^^'^^- ^^'^' ^^^' ^^^ ^^^' ^^"'> ^^^' ^^*- T^^

'arrow ' with a short shaft is frequent on these

stones, one variety (13a) showing the feather-

(a) (V) shaft. Similar figures are occasionally seen

in the field of Mycenaean gems found in the

island, where they represent arrows of the chase about to strike wild goats or

other animals. The Hittite hieroglyphic series presents some close parallels.

1^ f \ t t

Jerabis [op. cit. PI. VIII. D. 1. 4, Gurun and Bulgar Maden (E. and H.

and H. X. 1. 4). PI. II. and PI. IV. Fig. 2).

14 M0l^ Figs. 23&, 35c. This symbol must be taken in connexion
^ ^^ with the next, in which a palmette with curving base is
inserted into its arch. Eeasons will be given below (p. 319)
for identifying this with the ' template ' used in constructing a design formed
of palmettes and returning spirals, which on other evidence seems to have
been employed in Crete in Mycenaean days. It may therefore be a badge
of a decorative artist.

Fiff. 23a.

Figs. 215, 22a, 23a, 23c, 25c, 32a, 335, 34c, 3na,
355, 38. This symbol, which is the most fre-
quent of all, occurring no less than eleven times
^ in the present series, may represent an instru-
ment — like an arbelon — for cutting leather. Or
it may possibly be compared with a tool such
as the Ec^yptians used for hollowing out vessels, and which seems to be repre-
sented by the Egyptian character Ul n. (See De Eouge, Ghrestomaihie
^gyptienne, p. 75.) Compare also Shen ^ = a chisel. 9 The projecting
shoulders recall a form of bronze celt. U

[306] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 37

17 ^ Figs. 34a and 23&. Apparently another instrument of the
same class as the above.

18 If Fig. 22d. This form may be compared with the Egyptian

^^M r\ = a mallet, determinative of ' to fabricate ' or ' build.'
g/l^ The Hittite []^ from Gurun (R. and H. PL IV. 2,
line 2) affords a close parallel to this and the above.

19 J Figs. 315, 31c. This highly interesting symbol repre-
sents a primitive form of musical instrument which,
though it at first sight rather recalls a lyre from its horn-
shaped sides, is essentially a harp, its opposite sides being

connected by three strings and not by a solid cross-piece.
Regarded as a harp, however, it presents an entirely new type, apparently
standing in the same relation to the Asiatic horn-bow as the simple forms of
African and other harps do to the wooden bow. It was, however, played with
a plectrum which, as in the case of primitive lyres among savages at the present
day, is here seen attached to the framework of the instrument. Although
this symbol must be classified as a harp, and not as a lyre, we may well ask
ourselves whether an instrument of this form, derived from the two-horned
Asiatic bow, may not have influenced — contaminated, as mythologists would
say — the form of the Greek lyre, the horn-shaped sides of which are not
essential to that form of instrument.

20 ^^^_,- ^MHM^ Figs. 2SZ>, Sob, 35d. Perhaps a plectrum as

,,- above.

(a) (h)

Fig. 25a. A club or sceptre. Compare the Egyptian
F Q = club, ,;;:::==0' = mace, Symbol of ' brilliancy'

and 'whiteness.'

22 I Fig. 23c. There can be little doubt that this symbol re-

presents an adze or some similar tool with a wooden handle.

The handle shows affinities with the Egyptian PL
a kind of adze or plane, which = stp, 'to judge' n i
or 'approve.' It may also be compared with the Hittite
(Jerabis, Wright, op. cit. PI. IX. lines 7, 8). Long
adzes are among the most typical forms of bronze
implements found in Crete. They are found in Mycenaean deposits, and one
in my possession from the Cave of Psychro is 11-35 inches in length. It is
probable that the end of the wooden handle of the Cretan implement repre-
sented above was shaped like the hind leg and hoof of an animal, as in the
case of many Egyptian tools.

^^ J^'^EOM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [307]

4A^^T ■^^^^ ^^^' ^^^^' s^i^ped like the jaw of an animal, probably
^^■^ formed of wood set with flint flakes. Compare the Egyptian

^'"'^-v-wyy = saw. For a somewhat similar saw of wood

set with flint teeth from Kahun, see Petrie, Illahun, Kahim, and Gurob,
PI. VII. Fig. 27.

Houses and Household Utensils.

(a) (b)

Figs. 226, 24a, 25a, 296. Gate, door, or part of a
fence. No. 2 in connexion with a pig.

25 ^1^ Figs. 30a, 32c, SQd. Perhaps variant of above, but c£ the
Egyptian symbol for ' shutter ' rz^

26 ^ Fig. 346. Gate or shutter.

^^ \ W ^^S- 32c. Fence.

»T

28 ^ Fig. 39. This vase evidently represents a metal original
closely resembling the Oriental ibrik, which serves an ewer
for pouring and sprinkling water. Vessels of this shape
form the principal type of a class of Mycenaean gems
specially common in Eastern Crete (see below, p. 370), sometimes fitted
with a conical cover like Persian ewers of the same kind. The curving
spout recalls that of an Egyptian libation-vase — ■> 5t! ^a6A. = 'libation,'
'sweet water' — but a simpler parallel is found in \ / the ordinary water-
vessel (>. O num = ' water.' It is probable that ^ the Cretan sign also
stands ^ — ' for ' water ' ; indeed, on the lentoid gems referred to, this vase
and others closely akin, with high beaked spouts, are seen beside a plant or
spray.i^** All this clearly indicates the purpose of watering.

29 ^■\^^ Figs. 32c, 31c. This form of vessel is of ceramic character,
and the seal on which it occurs belongs to an early class.
It corresponds with a primitive type of high-beaked vases
of very wide distribution, extending from Cyprus and the

ii'b In the case of a closely allied form of vase Goulas a vase of this kijid is seen beside a
with two handles the spray is seen inserted in plant, above which is a rayed disc indicating
the mouth of the vessel. On a gem from the midday sun.

[308] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 39

Troad to the Aegean Islands aud the mainland of Greece. They occur at
Hissarlik, and in the early cist-graves of Amorgos of prae-Mycenaean date, and
I found part of the beaked spout of one of equally early fabric on the site
of Praesos. Vases of this form are seen on the most primitive class of
Cretan engraved gems, going back to the third millennium B.C. (see
p. 332), and continue — taking at times a more metallic form — into
the Mycenaean period. On two Vaphio gems ('E(^. '^PX- 1890, PI. X. 35
36) a closely allied prochmis is seen in the hands of the mysterious beast-
headed daemons of Mycenaean art, who in one case are engaged in watering
nurseling palm-trees. Another representation of the same form of vase
occurs above two bulls in the field of a gem from Tomb 27 of the lower
town of Mycenae ('E^. 'Apx- 1888, PI. X. 24).

30 '^^ Fig. 40. This symbol belongs to the same class as the above.

31 V I y Fig. 40. Possibly some kind of vessel.

Marine Subjects.

Figs. 34a, 28a. The first of these vessels
is accompanied with two crescents, one on
either side of the mast — perhaps a sign of
time as applied to the duration of a voyage
(see below. No. 65). One ship has seven
oars visible, the other six. In form these vessels show a great resemblance
to those which appear as the principal type on a class of Mycenaean lentoid
gems, specimens of which are found in Crete. One of these in my possession
shows fifteen oars and a double rudder, and perhaps an upper row of oars.
The double end of the first example — like an open beak — may recall the
swan-headed ships of the confederate invaders of Egypt ' from the middle of
the sea' in Rameses III.'s time as seen on the frescoes of Medinet Habou. In
the present case, however, no yards are visible.

33 \^^K> ^'^°- ^^"'- -Apparently a tunny-fish : the hatched-work
^^^•^ behind may indicate a net. Fish as hieroglyphic symbols
are common to Egypt and Chaldaea, It looks as if tunny-fisheries had
existed off the Cretan coast in Mycenaean times. The well-known gem with a
fisherman in the British Museum {Gem Catalogiie, 80, PJ. A) may refer to the
same industry ; and tunny-fish occur on two more Cretan gems of Mycenaean
date in the same collection. A fish of the same type occurs as a symbol
on Cypriote cylinders (cf. Salaminia, PI. XIV. 48).

40 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [309]

S4 ^ Fig. 39. Also apparently a fish. The head is more rounded
than No. 33, but this may be due to rudeness of design. Fish
of the same rude form are seen on Cypriote cylinders (cf.
Cesnola, Salaminia, PI. XIV. 48).

Animals and Birds.

35 "^^ Fig. 33c. Head of he-goat. This symbol presents a re-
markable similarity to the Hittite hieroglypli of the same
object ^^i—.^ , the value of which from its occurrence on
the bi- ^^r--^ lingual seal of Tarkutimme (Tarkondemos)
in Hittite and cuneiform characters is known to represent

the syllables Tarrik or Tarhih (Sayce, Trans. Soc. Bill. Arch. Vol. VII.
Pt. II. (1881), p. 297, and Emp. of Hittites, p. 182; Theo. Pinches,
ib. p. 220, and Trans. Soc. Bihl. Arch. March 3, 1885; and cf. Hal(5vy_
Bev. Sim. 1893, p. 55 seqq.). The element ' Tarrik,' again, in the name of
this prince, seems to refer to the god Tark (cf. Ramsay and Hogarth, Pre-
hellenic Monuments of Gapfadocia, p. 9 seqq.). The Egyptian goat's-head sign
^5:^^^ is of a different character. The neck is given as well as the head,
^~0 and there is no beard.

36 ^ Fig. 37a. Bull or Ox. The seal on which it occurs is
of primitive type.

37 A Fig. 24&. A doe or kid.

38 // . Figs. 236, 325. Apparently intended for deer-horns.

39 V y Fig. 2(ja. Horned head of an uncertain animal, apparently
an ox.

40 '^■m^BT Fig. 21a. This appears to be rather a hicranmm or skull

^W^ of a bull or ox, than the actual head of the animal. As

■^ an ornament of the reliefs of altars the lucranium occurs

already in Mycenaean art. This appears from a lentoid gem in the British

[310] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 41

Museum, on which is seen an animal of the goat kind freshly slaughtered,
with a dagger thrust into its shoulder, lying on an altar or sacrificial bench,
the front of which is adorned with four buerania much resembling the above.
In this case, to complete the parallel with later classical reliefs, fillets attached
to the extremities of the horns are seen hanging down between the skulls.

41 \£ Fig. SM. This symbol must be regarded as uncertain. It is
placed here, however, as showing a great resemblance to the
Hittite siga which has been interpreted as an elongated form
of the M ass's head. (Palanga.)

42 ^^-v Fig. 376. Perhaps a variant of the above.

43 . Uig^. Fig. 24a. Pig. A similar ideograph occurs on a three-
sided stone of the earlier Cretan type presented to the
Ashmolean Museum by Mr. J. L. Myres.

44 2^^ Figs- 23a, 326. Wolfs head with the tongue hanging
out. This symbol shows a remarkable likeness to the
Hittite ^^ (Jerabis, op. cit. PI. VIII. D. 1. 3,
PI. IX. (T^—^ 1. 3), where again we find the same pro-
truding tongue.

Fig. 31a. Dove pluming its wing.

Fig. 40. Perhaps variant form of above.

Fig. 39. Bird standing. Birds in a somewhat similar posi-
tion occur among the Hittite symbols at Jerabis and Bulgar
Maden, and are frequent in Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Fig. 26a. Apparently a bird's head. Heads of various
kinds of birds are common among Egyptian hieroglyphics.

FEOM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

[311]

Fig. 32c. This symbol apparently consists of two birds
heads turned in opposite directions.

v^y

Figs. 28c, 30a. Perhaps a conventionalized
sea-horse. The uppermost symbol on Fig. 18&
(No. 76 below) may be a simplification of
this. Compare y->_,yO>, on a ' Hittite '

seal-stone from Smyrna. A very similar form ~^-^ occurs on an early

truncated cone from Tartus.

(«)

(b)

•fr

On the steatite relief (Fig. 18&). Apparently a tortoise.

Vegetable Forms.

Fig. 345.

54 /^/^/2\ Figs. 235, 33rf, 35a, 35c. This may perhaps be regarded
as an abbreviated form of one of the above, with possibly
a differentiated meaning. The form is common to the
Hittite monuments, occurring at Jerabis, _JL, (Wright,
op. cit. PI. VIII. B 1. 5) in a more floral, and also q^ (op. cit. iT PL XIX.
6) in a geometrical form ; while at Bulgar u Maden (Ramsay and
Hogarth, Frehellenic Monuments of Cappadocia, PI. II. 1. 3, beginning) it forms
a purely linear sign qJc,. The same, or a closely allied symbol, is also
seen on the lion of i Marash (Wright, op. cit. PI. XXVII. Ill, 1. 1).

Fig. 25&.

[312] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 43

56 ^^ Fig. 31c. Perhaps a lily. This form is more pictorial
%^r. than the others. Compare the Hittite ^ Hamath

^^5%' (Wright, op. cit. Pi. IV. 11. 2 and 3). O^

57 V ^ y Fig. 32(7. I have placed this symbol, as completed, amongst

floral forms from its apparent analogy to the Hittite

^XoX? as seen on the monument at Ivriz (Ramsay and

^^-^ Hogarth, Prehellenic Mommients of Capioadoda, PI.

III.). The dot which occurs above both symbols may
be reasonably interpreted as representing the head of a stamen or pistil, as
those of the lily, No. 56.

58 , ^ Figs. 37&, 40. Tree symbol. On a Mycenaean lentoid
gem, now in the Museum of the Syllogos at Candia, a
votary is seen blowing a conch-shell before an altar,
behind which is a sacred grove with trees in the
same conventional style. M A similar degeneration
of the sacred tree occurs |.a on Cypriote cylinders.

59 J Fig. 28&, repeated. Spray or branch, and the same is seen
duplicated on Fig. 29c.

Heavenly Bodies and Derivatives.
Fig. 83c. Day-star, or sun, with eight revolving rays.

61 vly Fig. 27a (the rays more revolving). Day-star, or sun,
with twelve rays. Star-like symbols occur on Syrian and
Asianic seal-stones.

^Tlv

(52 jr ■* Fig. 355. This symbol, with the taugential offshoots

(^^ suggesting revolution, seems to fit on to No. 60 and to be

^•^^ of solar import. For the concentric circles as a solar

omblem compare the Egyptian (o) 'S'cp = times {vices), and the circle with

a central dot is also the Chinese symbol for sun. The eye symbol. No. 4,

approaches this very closely.

44 PROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [313]

^^ Q'-'CS -^^^^ ^^'^- '^^^^ ^°™^ suggests a combination of solar and
lunar symbols.

64 >^^ Fig. 32& and cf. 39. Star of four rays. This symbol is
frequent on Cypriote cylinders.

65 ^ ^ Two small crescent-moons are seen on either side of the
mast of the vessel on Fig. 34«. They perhaps indicate
duration of time — months — as applied to the length of
a voyage.

Geographical or Topographical.

66 A k ^^ ^m Figs. Sod, 2oh. Apparently variants of the

^^^^ ^H^V same symbol which seems to represent a

(a) (b)" widely distributed pictograph for mountains

and valleys, and so country or land. On the

boss of Tarriktimmc (Tarkondemos) M = country (Sayce, Trcms. L'ibl.

Arch. Vol. VII. Pt. II. (1887), p. 297 ^ scqq. ; and cf. Halevy, Ecv. Sii-

mitique, 1893, p. 55 seqq.). It is found again in Jerabis (Wright, op. cit. PJ.

IX. J. II. 1. 1) and apparently on the monument near Bulgar Maden (R.

and H. Prchellenic Momcments, &c., PL II. 1. 2) AA-

The Egyptian f\/~) 'men = mountain is applied in the same way

as a determinative L 1 for 'districts' and 'countries.' As

smit = granary, it reappears, with one or two heaps of corn in

the middle, in the simple sense of a ' plot of ground.' The Accadian

symbol, again, signifying a plot of ground, exhibits a form l\/1

closely parallel to the above.

And in this connexion a truly remarkable coincidence is observable
between the pictographic symbolism of old Chaldaea and that of the
Cretans of the Mycenaean period. The linear form of the Accadian Ut-hi,
f^^ shows a sun above the symbol of the ground with a plant growing
i^^J out of it. But on specimens of Mycenaean gems observed by me
in Eastern Crete, side by side with the vase for watering already reftrred to,
are seen symbolic or conventional representations of the plant growing out
of the ground, recalling the Accadian version almost totidem lineis M
on amygdaloid cornelian; Zero (near Praesos). r^ on amygdaloid / V\
cornelian; Goulds. In another case the ewer t=l divides the two sym-
bols ^ K/1 on an almond-shaped stone of the same character; Girapetra,

[314] PEIMITIVE PICTOGEAPHS AND SCRIPT 45

Geometrical Figures.

G7 \ / Figs. 23&, 23c, 25a, 25c, 3M, 34&, 38. This siga may be
simply a supplementary figure. Ou Fig. 38 it is thrice
repeated with the sign No. 16, and might, like the similar
Egyptian sign N/ , indicate multiplication.

G8 ^ <|% Figs. 34«, 34(Z. This may be an intercalated sign, perhaps
of the nature of a break between words.

(«) (h)

09 f\ ^% Figs. 21a, 23c. Repeated in two directions on Fig. 23c.
This, too, is possibly an ornamental insertion, but it may
however be compared with the Egyptian ^ , a coil of
thread, signifying ' to reel.'

70 ^^ Fig. 24(J!. This may be the same as No. 69 with an
additional ornamental flourish.

Uncertain Symbols.

71 ^ «L • ^ Figs. 31&, 35c. The late Hi ttite sign (TN,/^

f*! l^ .A. J occurs at Gurun (R. and H. op. cit. PI. IV. 2, 1. 2),

^^P^ ^^^^^ ^"d perhaps in the inscription near Bulgar

C^) /j\ Maden (pp. cit. PI. TI. 1. 3).

72 '^T' Fig. 27«.

73 x9N Fig. 25c.

74 ^^ Fig. 25c. Somewhat fractured below.

46 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [315]

75 ^^ Fig. 34(^. A certain analogy is presented by the Hittite sign
\ Hamath (Wright, op. cit. PI. I. H. II. 1. 2),

Jerabis {op. cit. PI. VIII. B. 1. 5), and on the 'Niobe' (Ed.-
GoUob. in op. cit. PI. XXII.).

76 ^^^ ^ Fig. 186. On the steatite relief (Fig. 18&); possibly a
conventionalized form of No. 50.

77 \ / Fig. 26a.

78 /"^ Fig. 25a. Perhaps a variant of No. 69.

79 ^^ Fig. SSc. This symbol presents a certain resemblance to the
^ ^ Hittite forms (f^ Hamath (Wright, op. cit. PI. I. 1. 1, PI.

II. H. III. 1. 1, PI. IV. H. V. 1. 1) ; (O) Jerabis (op. cit. PI. VIII. J. I. A. 1. 3,

B. 1. 2) ; (T^ Bulgar Maden (R. and H. op. cit. PI. II. 1. 3) ; (^ Gurun
(op. cit. PI. IV. 1).

80 §lM Fig- 22*- '^^i^ recalls the Egyptian V = ' skein of thread/

^V the determinative for ' linen,' ' bind- ^ ing,' &c. Compare,

V J too, the twisted cord O sew = ' to turn back,' and ^

Ices, the tied up bundle /\ = ' to bury.' On the Hittite

silver seal procured at Bor, near Tyana (Ramsay and Hogarth, Frehellenic

Monuments of Cappadocia, p. 17, Fig. 2), occurs the sign ^ identical with

the Cretan. ^^

81 ^[^^ ^^^ Figs. 35c, 35d.

(a) (&)

82 r->/ Fig. 32c. This symbol, if rightly completed, recalls the
^■J^^^^ Egyptian ><d__^X = Net, which serves especially to

write the name of Neith the Goddess of Sais; also
^^Xr~XI^ = ^^' ^^*^ i*^ abbreviated form, sometimes described as a
'twisted cord,'

[316]

PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT

It will be seen from the above list that there are some eighty-two
symbols classified under the following heads :

The human body and its parts

Arms, implements and instruments

Parts of houses and household utensils

Marine subjects

Animals and birds

Vegetable forms

Heavenly bodies and derivatives

Geographical or topographical signs

Geometrical figures

Uncertain symbols

17
8
3

17
8
6
1
4

The numerous comparisons made with Egyptian hieroglyphs in the
course of the above analysis do not by any means involve the conclusion that
we have in the Cretan signs merely their blundered imitation. Where such
occur, as in the case of a well-known class of Phoenician and of some Cypriote
Greek objects, we are confronted with very different results. Had there been
any attempt to copy Egyptian cartouches or inscriptions, we should infallibly
have found, as in the above cases, travesties or imperfect renderings of
Egyptian forms. But imitative figures of this kind do not make their
appearance, and no attempt has been made to copy even the commonest of
the Egyptian characters. Such parallelism as does appear is at most the
parallelism of an independent system drawn from a common source. Nor are
affinities of this kind by any means confined to Egypt.

Among the closer parallels with the signs of other hieroglyphic systems
that it has been jJossible to indicate, about sixteen (or 20 per cent.) approach
Egyptian and an equal number Hittite forms : mere general resemblances,
such as those presented by certain figures of fish, birds, &c., being excluded
from this rough calculation. Considering that the choice of comparisons is
in the case of the Egyptian hieroglyphs very much larger than that of the
Hittite, it will be seen that the proportion of affinities distinctly inclines to
the Asianic side. Certain signs, such as the wolf's head with the tongue
hanging out (No. 44), the he-goat's head (No. 35), the arrow (No. 13), the
three-balled spray (No. 54), and Nos. 41, 57, 79 and 80, clearly point to a
fundamental relationship between the Hittite and Cretan systems. The
double axe moreover is characteristically Asianic, but as certainly not
Egyptian. The single axe of the form represented in No. 8 is also non-
Egyptian. We are struck too by the absence of the distinctively religious
symbols which in Egyptian hieroglyphics are of such constant recurrence.
In the Hittite series, on the other hand, as in the Cretan, this hieratic
element, though it no doubt exists, does not certainly take up so conspicuous
a position.

The somewhat promiscuous way in which the signs are disposed in some
of the spaces, notably on Fig. 23b, is strikingly suggestive of the Hittite

48 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [317]

monuments. When the impressions of the three or four sides of one of the
Cretan stones are placed in a row one above the other, as on the analogy of
the Babylonian cylinders they would have been in clay impressions, we
obtain a columnar arrangement of symbols in relief which curiously recalls
the sculptured stones of Hamath or the site of Qarchemish. So far more-
over as can be gathered from an examination of the Cretan stones, the same
boustrophedon arrangement seems to have been here adopted as on most of
the Hittite monuments.^^*^

Yet we have not here, any more than in the Egyptian case, to do with
the mere servile imitation of foreign symbols. The common elements that are
shared with the Hittite characters are in some respects more striking, and
there is greater general sympathy in form and arrangement. The coinci-^
dences, indeed, are at times of such a kind as to suggest a real affinity. But
this relationship is at most of a collateral kind. Some Cretan types present
a surprising analogy with the Asianic ; on the other hand, many of the most
usual of the Hittite symbols are conspicuous by their absence. The parallel-
ism, as it seems to me, can best be explained by supposing that both systems
had grown up in a more or less conterminous area out of still more primitive!*
pictographic elements. The Cypriote parallels may be accounted for on the
same hypothesis.

In the early picture-writing of a region geographically continuous there
may well have been originally many common elements, such as we find
among the American Indians at the present day; and when, later, on the
banks of the Orontes and the highlands of Cappadocia on the one side, or on
the Aegean shores on the other, a more formalized ' hieroglyphic ' script began
independently to develop itself out of these simpler elements, what more
natural than that certain features common to both should survive in each ?
Later intercommunication may have also contributed to preserve this common
element. But the symbolic script with which we have here to deal is essen-
tially in situ. As will be demonstrated in the succeeding section the Cretan
system of picture-writing is inseparable from the area dominated by the
Mycenaean form of culture. Geographically speaking it belongs to Greece.

§ V. — The Mycenaean Affinities of the Cretan Pictographs.

Some definite evidence as to the chronology of these Cretan seal-stones
is afforded by the points of comparison that they offer with Mycenaean
forms. Amongst the ' Mycenaean ' gems of Crete are found three-sided
stones like those represented in Fig. 206.1^'^ One of these, a cornelian
from the site or neighbourhood of Goulas, exhibits on one of its sides
heart-shaped leaves similar to those seen upon seme Mycenaean vases.
Vessels with this kind of leaf occurred in the fifth and sixth of the

i«c See p. 301. i^iKi is inserted on p. 288 merely as an example

iSiJ This is in fact an ordinary Mycenaean of form,
gem representing apparently a kind of base,

[318] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 49

Akropolis graves at Mycenaej^" and it is a common ornament of the stamped
glass plaques of the later Mycenaean interments. Another example of this
vegetable form may be seen on a low vase found by Professor Petrie in the
' Maket ' tomb at Kahun, the approximate date of which is now fixed at
about 1450 B.C. by the new evidence supplied by the foundation deposits
of Thothmes III. at Koptos.^i A very similar type of leaf is also seen on
a Mycenaean fragment from Tell-el-Amarna, belonging to the age of
Akhenaten (Khuenaten) and the early part of the fourteenth century
before our era. In a still more literal form, moreover, it appears executed
in a brilliant blue on the fresco decoration of the Palace itself.^i^ The leaf
on the Goul&,s gem presents the distinguishing feature of being decorated
with hatched lines ; ^'^ and this peculiarity recurs in an example of the
same motive upon one of the vases from the first shaft-grave at
Mycenae, the ceramic contents of which, fitting on as they do to some
of the types of Thera,^^ must be regarded as earlier rather than later than
the Tell-el-Amarna fragments. On these grounds I would approximately
refer the Goulds gem to the fifteenth century B.C.

A more globular variety of the three-sided stones is also represented
among Mycenaean gems. On one obtained by me from Central Crete
the same leaf-shaped ornament occurs as that described above. On
another from Malia, also a cornelian, engraved on two of its faces, are designs
of a wild goat struck by an arrow, and of a flying eagle with two zigzag
lines proceeding from it — possibly a Mycenaean 'thunder-bird.' An en-
graved amethyst, again, of this type was found in the Vaphio tomb ; and
here again we have an indication of date taking us to the middle of the
second millennium B.C. and to the most flourishing period of Mycenaean art.

The peculiar form of stone (Fig. 21) with the spirally fluted back,

^^ Schiiolihardt, Sckliemann's Excavations, Thera class of vases would alone be fatal to

p. 187, figs. 161 — 163. Mr. Petrie's former view, that the beginning of

^1 Mr. Petrie in his Egyptian Bases of Greek natural designs on Mycenaean pottery should

History {Hell. Journ. xi. (1890), p. 273) and be brought down so low as this in date. But Mr.

Jllahmi, &o., pp. 23, 24 had dated this tomb c. Cecil Torr, viho in a.\ettev to ihe Classieal Meview

1100 B.C., though he noted as a somewhat makes much of the inconsistency between the

incongruous circumstance that the latest scarabs results obtained at Tell-el-Amarna and Mr.

found belonged to Thothmes III. The new Petrie's former opinion as to the date of the

comparisons supplied by foundation deposits of Maket tomb, will hardly be gratified to find

Thothmes III. excavated by him at Koptos, that the chronological revision that has to be

such as the ribbed beads, &c., of the same type made is in favour of a greater antiquity,

there found, have now led him however to ^^^ Specimens of this design presented by

revise his opinion, and to carry back the date Mr. Petrie are now in the Ashmolean Museum,

of the Maket tomb to the same time as these "' Petrie, Tell-el-Amarna, PI. XXIX. and

deposits. An examination of the Koptos relics, of. p. 17. In this case however the leaf is more

which I had the advantage of making in Mr. lanceolate.

Petrie's company, leaves no doubt in my mind ^ This is notably the case with the vase

that this conclusion must be regarded as final. which bears on its neck two breasts surrounded

On other grounds, especially since the discovery with dots. Compare Schuchhardt, op. eit. fig.

of the TclI-el-Amarua fragments, I had already 166, p. 189 and Dumont et Chaplain, Cira,-

been led to infer that 1100 B.C. was too'late a date mique dc la Grece propre.
for the ' Maket ' deposit. The existence of tlie

FEOM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

[319]

which, as pointed out above, seems to originate from a twin Nerita shell type
of an earlier period, also occurs among the Mycenaean gems of Crete. One
of these, obtained in Candia, is engraved with a typical design of a sepia ;
another, found at Goulds, has a combined spiral and vegetable motive of
great interest (Fig 42). The leaves in this composition evidently belong

Fig. 42.— Gem, GouUs (2 diams.).

to the same water-plant as that seen on a painted ossuary in the form of
a hut discovered by Professor Halbherr in a Mycenaean tholos tomb at
Anoya Messaritika.2* The same palmette-like form however recurs in a
still more literal guise, occupying the arched interior of the symbol No. 14
on the three-sided stone Fig. 23a. And here an interesting combination
suggests itself.

The observation has already been made above that the symbol No. 14
(see below, Fig. 43) which occurs on stones (Fig. 23&, 35c) is the same
as No. 15 (Fig. 44), minus the leaf and spirals. I had therefore at first
looked upon this latter as a kind of decorative excrescence not essential to
the symbol itself. But the symbol in its simplified form, with its arched
space below and two curved incisions on the top, remained a puzzle. Judging
by the analogy of other signs, it was probably some form of instrument or
implement, and the suspicion did cross my mind that it might be connected
with house-building and possibly the decoration of ceilings.

But the Goulas gem places this conjecture in quite a new light. The
combination of triquetral curves and vegetable ornament that it presents, at
once declares the design to be a part subtracted as it were from a more
spacious ornamental surface. The divergent spirals, coupled with foliate or

^ P. Orsi, Urne Funehri Crctcsi, PI. I.
Perrot, La Grece Primitive, p. 930, quotes with
approval a theory of M. Houssay, a zoologist
(which he had previously applied to a large
cuttle-fish on a Mycenaean vase from PitanS in
the Aeolid), that the ducks, fish and starlike
objects seen between the branches of the
plant upon the ossuary were supposed to have
been generated by it, and that it is in fact the
' barnacle-tree ' of folk-lore. For myself how-
ever the plant simply represents a water-plant
by the side of a stream, the ducks which follow

next behind it are flying over the surface of
the water, and the fish alone, in the third
line, are actually in the water. In fact it is
not difficult to trace in this design a reminiscence
of a commonplace of Egyptian painted pavements
and frescoes, in which river-plants with ducks
flying over them or poising on their branches
are seen beside a tank or stream containing
fish. Only here the forms of the leaves are
difi'erent from those of the lotos or papyrus
seen on the Egyptian models.

E g

[320]

PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT

floral forms, are the animating principle of a whole series of large
decorative compositions, of which the ceiling of Orchomenos is the most
conspicuous example in Mycenaean art, but which are in fact the almost literal
copies of Egyptian prototypes.

Fig. 43.

Fis. 44.

Fig. 45.

In view of these comparisons it occurred to me that the symbol connected
above with the palmette — belonging ex hypothesi to a form of Mycenaean
ceiling — might have been a simple kind of stencilling plate known as a
' template,' such as is still in use among decorators, and that it was employed
for a similar purpose by the artists whose business it was to adorn the palaces
of the Mycenaean lords. I accordingly cut out a symmetrical model of
the sign (Fig. 43), and made a practical test of its utility in the
mechanical procedure necessary for producing such a design. The use
of the incurved notches at the top of the figure became at once apparent.
The symbol, first applied with the top of the arch uppermost so as to
stand on a line ready ruled, gave the upper outline of the leaf, for which the
inner margin of the arch supplied the tracing. Now turning the figure upside
down, and carefully adjusting its feet to the terminal points of the upper
border of the tracing already made, it will be seen (Fig. 45) that the double
curves fit into the lower opening of the arch, and give the two incurving lines
required for the lower margin of the palmette (Fig. 44).

The form of template suggested by the symbols fulfils the following
conditions : — (1) It will be contained in a square, its height being equal to
its width. (2) The opening at the base of the arch is equal in width to
the space between the exterior horns of the summit. (3) The top of the arch
forms a semicircle, the radius of which is equal to that of the curves of the
notches at the top.

I. — Now apply the template thus formed to a sloping line A B twice on
each side of it, as shown in the diagram Fig. 46, so that in all four positions
one of its feet rests on the portion C Z* of the said line A B.

II. — Apply the template sideways to the sloping line A B, as in diagram
Fig. 47, and adjust the foot in each case to the lines E E, mark the point of
the extreme horns F F' and rule the two lines F G, H F, which are parallels.

FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

[321]

Now complete the circular heads of the arches round the points F F , which
form, in the case given, the centres of the circles thus drawn.

Fig. 46.

JII. — Produce the parallels F O, E F and join the points F F'. Taking
F F' as a. side, mark off as often as required the same distance on the produced
parallels F G, H F, drawing at each such distance a fresh parallel to the line

?yO:::-^

Fig. 47.

F F', and thus producing a series of rhombi. At each of these points repeat
the small circles, and to complete the groundwork of this band of the design
it is only necessary to draw the curving lines tangentially to them.

[322]

PRIMITIVE PIOTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT

The first section of Fig. 48 shows the simple rhombus, the second the same
with tangential lines straight and curving. In the third section on the line
A B, and upon the base D JS already obtained in Fig. 46, a palmette is formed
by reversing the template as in Fig. 46c, and so on in the other rhombi. The
curving stems and cross lines are then filled in as in the Goulds gem (Fig. 44),
the result being that shown in PL XII.

Observation. — In order to fit the design into a square or rectangular
surface, as in PL XII., each new band of rhombi must be taken back to a start-
ing point (Z), which must be at the same distance from a right or left margin
as was F at the commencement.

Fig. 48.

The complete design as restored in Plate XII. by the aid of the
template symbol may well have decorated the ceiling of a palace hall or
princely sepulchral chamber in the great Mycenaean city where the gem was
found which suggested this practical application of the pictograph. The
typical combination of the volute and vegetable motive which it exhibits
affords in turn a secure chronological standpoint. The design before us
belongs to the same class as the ceiling of Orchomenos and the fragment of wall-
painting from the palace at Tiryns,^" and was, like them, undoubtedly executed
under the immediate influence of the Egyptian style of ceiling decoration
that came into vogue under the Eighteenth Dynasty, and the finest examples
of which are to be seen in the Theban tombs. The colours on Plate XII. have
in fact been supplied from Egyptian analogy. ^^*

^■^ SoUiemann, Tiryns, PI. V.

25a The tangential curves of this group of
designs are in nearly all cases coloured yellow
as if to imitate gold, and this rule also holds
good in the case of the wall-painting in the

Palace at Tiryns (Schliemann, Tiryns, PL V.).
The alternation of red and blue fields is also
common in Egyptian ceilings of this class. 1
I am indebted to Mr. J. Tylor for some un-
published examples of similar patterns from the

54 FROM CRETE AlSID THE PELOPONiSTESE. [323]

It is probable that at the time when these gems were executed this
decorative pattern combining the palmettes and returning curves or spirals
was widely prevalent in Crete. The template symbol itself recurs on two
seal-stones, in one case with palmetto and spirals attached, and on the
triangular seal. Fig. 22c, there is a combination of two palmettes and
curving lines going in opposite directions, which may be regarded as a
simplified version of the fuller motive, as seen in the Goulks gem. The
volute form of the latter stone is, as already shown, characteristic of a
class of Cretan gems with purely Mycenaean types, and the connexion that
has been established between the design that it presents and Cretan picto-
graphic symbols on the one hand, and the Egypto-Mycenaean ceiling
decoration on the other, gives us a fresh basis for a chronological equation.
The later pictographic class is once more brought into close relation with
Mycenaean art, while the Egyptian parallels take us once more to the
middle of the second millennium before our era for the approximate date
of the seal-stones on which these suggestive forms occur.

In examining the symbols on the Cretan seal-stones various other
parallels with Mycenaean forms have already been pointed out. The single
figures which occur, such as the young doe or kid in Fig. 24&, the dove
pluming its wings on Fig. 31a, fit on both in style and execution to the
Mycenaean class. The ship on Fig. 34a and 28a is found again in all its
typical lines on lentoid beads of Mycenaean fabric found in Crete. The
double axe No. 10, the bent leg No. 5, the bucranium No. 40, all make
their appearance as accessories of Mycenaean seals and gems from Pelo-
ponnesian tombs. The forms of vases seen in Nos. 28 and 29 are elsewhere
held in the hands of Mycenaean daemons, and are the distinguishing types
of a whole series of lentoid and amygdaloid gems of Mycenaean character
found in Eastern Crete, on the ethnographical importance of which more
will be said later on.

It is always possible, as already observed, that some of the smaller objects
seen in the field of the typical Mycenaean gems beside the principal design
may belong to the same pictographic class as the signs on the angular seal-
stones. Such correspondences as those noted above certainly tend to add to
this probability. But, bearing in mind the known tendency of the primitive
artist to fill up the vacant places of the field with supplementary figures, it
does not seem safe to assume that, because small figures identical with the
pictographic forms occasionally found their way on to these more decorative
objects, they are necessarily to be regarded as having in that position a
hieroglyphic value. When however symbols of this character occur in
groups, occupying the whole surface of field, the case assumes a different
complexion, and it is with this phenomenon that we have to deal in the class
of early lentoid gems from Crete represented by Figs. 40 and 41. Of these

ceilings of grottoes near Silsilis, of the of red and blue, enclosed by yellow tangential
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties. One of curves, affords a close parallel to the Cretan
these, a series of rhomboidal fields alternately design as restored in PI. XII.

[324] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPBtS AND SCRIPT 55

Fig. 40 exhibits a group of four distinct symbols and part of a fifth, which
has unfortunately been broken off. Fig. 41 again contains three signs
apparently of the same hieroglyphic character, one of which — the arm holding
a curved instrument — resembles the symbol on Fig. 326. These specimens
belong apparently to the earlier class of lentoid beads and, like all those of
this early class, which in Crete is especially well represented, are cut in soft
stone, apparently steatite. One is from Knosos, the other from the Messara
district of Central Crete, and with them may be grouped another similar
lentoid bead from the latter region, with a figure which clearly repi-esents an
insular copy of the Egyptian AnJch.

§ VI. — The Earlier Classes of Cretan Seal-stones.

The comparisons already accumulated sufficiently warrant us in refer-
ring the most characteristic of the hieroglyphic stones to the great days of
Mycenaean art. The connexion established is indeed from many points of
view so intimate that it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that there
existed within the regions dominated by the Mycenaean culture — in Crete
certainly, perhaps in the Peloponnesus — a form of picture-writing of much the
same general character as that in use throughout this same period in the
' Hittite ' countries of Asia Minor.

But with these Mycenaean comparisons the last word has by no means
been said on the origin and evolution of the hieroglyphic forms. There are
distinct indications that the beginnings of this picture-writing go back to a
far more remote period of Cretan story. Everything tends to show that
they are in fact deeply rooted in the soil. The most typical forms of the
stones themselves come, as will be seen, of an old indigenous stock. As we
go farther back the signs become more pictorial, but they seem still to
stand in a personal relation to their owners not to be found on merely
decorative gems, and they serve essentially the same purpose as elements of
seals.

Of the types described the four-sided equilateral prisms represented by
Class II., all of which seem to belong to the Mycenaean period, correspond
with an Egyptian form of seal-stone that was in vogue in the time of the
Eighteenth Dynasty, and a good specimen of which in green jasper datino-
from the reign of Thothmes II. (c. 1516—1503 B.C.) was found by Mr.
Petrie in the Maket Tomb at Kahun. But the three-sided form seems to
be a characteristically Cretan product and to go back in the island to a
much more remote period.

In the course of my journey through Central and Eastern Crete I came
across a series of stones which, though of distinctly earlier fabric, showed the
same typical triangular form as Class I. of the later hieroglyphic series.
Some of these have the same elongated form, others resemble in shape the
more globular variety, but they are larger, and unlike the others, always cut
in steatite and never out of harder materials such as cornelian or jasper.

66 FROM CEETE AND THE PELOi>ONNESE. [325]

One or two of these earlier types (Figs. 21, 36) have been inserted in the series
of hieroglyphic seal-stones already given, as presenting symbols of essentially
the same class though at times in a more primitive form and associated with
more purely ideographic figures. It would not have been difficult, as will
be seen from the contents of the present section, to have added others, and
in truth no real lines of demarcation can be laid down between the earlier
and the later group. These primitive types show a close correspondence
in their designs with certain other classes of early engraved stones found in
the island. Amongst these may be mentioned flat disks perforated along
their axes and engraved on both faces, button-like stones, and others of
truncated pyramidal and sub-conical forms, bored horizontally near the apex.

For the dating of this early group most valuable evidence is supplied
by the deposit, already referred to, found at Hagios Onuphrios, near the site
of Phaestos, and now preserved in the little Museum of the Syllogos or
Literary Society of Candia (Heraklio). This deposit, which contains nothing
that can safely be brought down to Mycenaean times proper, is of a homo-
geneous character, and seems to me to be of capital importance in the history
of early Aegean art. Although exact details of the excavation are wanting,^*
it is certain that it represents the remains of early sepulture, dating from
the same period as the primitive cemeteries of Amorgos and presenting a
series of objects in many respects strikingly similar to those from the
Amorgan cists.^®* Here are the same rude marble idols and vessels, high-
spouted clay vases and rude pots with perforated covers, as well as the first
beginnings of painted ware, with red, white, and violet stripes on the plain
surface of the clay. Here is the square-ended triangular-bladed dagger of
the Amorgan graves, the fluted jewelry, but of gold instead of silver ; here
are the same steatite pendants and spirally ornamented seals. In a word the
Phaestos deposit covers precisely the same period as the earlier elements of
the Amorgos cemeteries — a period which may be roughly defined as
intermediate between the first prehistoric stratum of Troy and the early
remains of Thera.^''^ As a matter of fact a two-handled jar with red and white
streaks on the blackish-brown ground which must be regarded as one of the
latest objects in the Phaestos group approaches in technique some of the
earliest ceramic specimens from Thera.

These considerations would alone be sufficient to afford a rough chrono-

2S Professor Halbherr has obligingly collected bones and skulls, but no regular tomb was noted,

for me on the spot the following particulars of The whole deposit occupied a space of about

the find, that are all that are now obtainable. four square metres.

The hill of H. Onuphrios where the objects 2°" For the early cist-graves of Amorgos see

were found rises opposite the double Akropolis especially F. Diimmler, Mittheihmgen von den

of Phaestos about a quarter of a mile to the GriecMschen Inseln (Ath. Mittli. 1886, p. 15

North of the ancient city. The find-spot itself seqq. and 209 seqq.), The contents of some of

was on the southern slope of the hill just above the Amorgan tombs, obtained by me in 1893, are

the Khans on the Dibaki road and near the now in the Ashmolean Museum.

aqueduct of a miU. The deposit was acciden- ^^^ For the Hagios Onuphrios deposit see

tally discovered in 1887 at a small distance p. lOi seqq.
beneath the surface. The objects lay in a heap of

[326] PRIMITITE PiCTOGRAPSS ANt) SCRIPT 5'r

logical guide. The Thera vases may be justly regarded as the earliest
examples of the Mycenaean class, which already by the middle of the second
millennium B.C. had attained its apogee. On archaeological grounds there-
fore it would certainly be unsafe to bring down the earliest of the painted
vases found beneath the volcanic strata at Santorin and Therasia later than
the eighteenth century before our era. On the other hand, the first pre-
historic city of Troy must be carried back to a far more remote period.
The recent excavations of Dr. Dorpfeld have now made it abundantly
clear that the Sixth City on the site of Hissarlik belongs to the great age
of Mycenae, or roughly-speaking 1500 B.c.^' But between this and the
once miscalled ' Homeric ' City of the second stratum, an interval, estimated
by Dr. Dorpfeld in round numbers at 500 years, must be allowed for the
intervening settlements, and beyond this again lies the whole duration
of the Second City, the beginnings of which go back at a moderate
estimate to 2500 B.C. The earliest and most primitive stratum is thus in
Dr. Dorpfeld's opinion carried back to the close of the fourth millennium
before our era.

But the Phaestos deposit contains direct chronological indications of
a kind hitherto unique amidst primitive Aegean finds. Amongst the relics
found there occurred in fact a series of Egyptian scarabs belonging to the
Twelfth Dynasty and the immediately succeeding period. And happily in
this case we have to deal not with cartouches containing names which
might possibly have been revived at later periods of Egyptian history, but
with a peculiar class of ornament and material that form the distinguishing
characteristics of the Egyptian scarabs of Twelfth Dynasty date, and which,
though partly maintained during the succeeding Dynasty, give way in later
work to other decorative fashions. The amethyst scarabs with a plain
face — intended to be covered with a gold plate, — characteristic of this
period of Egyptian art, are represented among the Phaestos relics by
an example, on which — probably by an indigenous hand, — three circles
have subsequently been engraved. A more important specimen however
is a steatite scarab engraved below, with a spiral ornament peculiar to this
period, to which also in all probability belongs a white steatite bead with
a vegetable motive and a scarab with a hieroglyphic inscription. Nor must
this occurrence of Twelfth Dynasty scarabs be considered at all exceptional
in Crete. From the Messar^ district I acquired another of the same class,
with a returning spiral ornament of a typical kind; while another scarab
found in the same region, with an S-shaped scroll and a cowry-like back,
apparently represents an indigenous imitation of a form that came into
vogue during the Hyksos period.^^

27 For the chronology arrived at by Dr. Dorp- istio form with cartouches representing blun-

feld, see especially Troja : 1893, pp. 61 and dered copies of the name of Ea-sehoteb-ab of

86. 87. the Thirteenth Dynasty, who reigned about

^ This is Professor Petrie's opinion. In his 2510 b c. It is natural to refer these blundered

History of Egypt (vol. I. p. 208, Fig. 116) are imitations of this cartouche to the succeeding

engraved two ' oowroids ' of the same character- Hyksos Period and with them this 'cowroid '

FROM CHETE AND THE PEtOPONNESE.

[327]

The Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt is placed by the most recent chrono-
logical researches 28" between the approximate dates 2778 and 2565 B.C.
The succeeding Thirteenth Dynasty, which partly preserved the same style
comes down on the same reckoning to about 2098 B.c.^sb With the guide
afforded by the presence of these Egyptian relics on the one hand and the
approximation to the earliest ceramic types of Thera on the other, we may
roughly take the period 2500—1800 e.g. as the time-limits of the
Phaestos deposit, which no doubt consisted of successive interments. The
generally 'Amorgan' facies of the whole group of objects found quite
squares with this result and at the same time prevents us from bringing
down the central period of the deposit too near the date of the more
developed ceramic style found in Santorin and Therasia. But among the

EGYPTIAN SCARABS XIIth DYNASTV

EARLY CRETAN SEAL-STONES

■ Fig. 49.

engraved stones found here, together with specimens of other types
described above, occurred a typical example of an elongated, three-
cornered seal-stone of the earlier class (see below. Fig. 73), having upon it
designs of a decorative rather than hieroglyphic character.

Upon a button-like ornament of steatite from the same deposit were
engraved three characters of the linear class (Fig. 12) ; and the remarkable
inscribed whorl (Fig. 11), referred to above (p. 284), was found in association
with the other relics on the same spot.

form. A parallel to this shell-like type is found
in the twin Nerita bead of the Phaestos deposit,
already referred to on p. 289,

''■^ Petrie of. cit. p. 147.
^^ Op. cit. p. 204.

[328]

JPElMITIVE PICTOGEAtHS ANt) SCRIPT

The influence of the decorative motives of Twelfth Dynasty scarabs
is perceptible upon other early Cretan seal-stones, both of the three-sided
and button-like classes. This will be clearly seen by a comparison of the
designs of the three scarabs given in Fig. 49a, 6, c, with motives taken
from the faces of primitive stone ' buttons ' and triangular seal-stones of early
fabric (Fig. 4Qd-h). It will be seen that the lower part of the ornament on d
has been ' crossed,' as it were, by the ' broad arrow ' symbol which occurs
on another facet of the same stone. This and g are triangular stones of the
same type as that represented in Fig. 19a, but of earlier technique than
the conventionally pictographic class. The central design on d reproduces the
principal motive of the scarab above it, and the two signs on / are simply
incomplete and rude transcriptions of the very characteristic scrolls on
cP The buttons e and g were obtained by me from the MessarJi
district, and the other of a closely similar type (A), which is unfortunately
broken, is from the Phaestos deposit. It is not too much to say that this

Fig. 50 (enlarged 2 diams.)

taking over of the decorative designs of Twelfth Dynasty scarabs on to
these early Cretan stones is of capita] importance in the history of European
art. In the examples already given will be found simple examples of the
borrowing at this early period— c. 2500 B.C.— of the returning spiral motive
■which was afterwards to play such an important part, not in the Aegean
countries only, but in the North and West. On the Twelfth Dynasty
scarabs this motive, as is well known to Egyptologists, was developed to an
extraordinary degree, the whole field being often entirely occupied by
divergent spirals to the exclusion of all other elements. These purely spiral
types, like the other Twelfth Dynasty motives already noticed, were also
copied by the native Cretan engravers. A good instance of this will be
seen on another button-like steatite of quatrefoil shape (Fig. 50) from
the same Phaestos deposit, exhibiting a series of four divergent spirals.

This parallel was kindly supplied me by Mr. Petrie.

60 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [329]

From Crete, where we find these Aegeau forms in actual juxtaposition
with their Egyptian prototypes, we can trace them to the early cemeteries of
Amorgos, presenting the same funeral inventory as that of Phaestos, and
here and in other Aegean islands like Melos can see them taking, before
our eyes more elaborate developments.^"'* Reinforced a thousand years
later by renewed intimacy of contact between the Aegean peoples and
the Egypt of Amenophis III., the same system was to regain a fresh
vitality as the principal motive of the Mycenaean goldsmith's work. But
though this later influence reacted on Mycenaean art, as can be seen by the
Orchomenos ceiling, the root of its spiral decoration is to be found in the
earlier ' Aegean ' system engrafted long before, in the days of the Twelfth
Dynasty. The earliest gold-work as seen in the Akropolis Tombs is the
translation into metal of ' Aegean ' stone decoration. The spiral design on
the Stele of Grave V is little more than a multiplication of that on the
Phaestian seal.

In the wake of early commerce the same spiraliform motives were to
spread still further afield to the Danubian basin, and thence in turn by the
valley of the Elbe to the Amber Coast of the North Sea, there to supply
the Scandinavian Bronze Age population with their leading decorative
designs. Adopted by the Celtic tribes in the Central European area, they
took at a somewhat later date a westerly turn, reached Britain with the
invading Belgae, and finally survived in Irish art. The high importance of
these Cretan finds is that they at last supply the missing link in this long
chain, and demonstrate the historical connexion between the earliest Euro-
pean forms of this spiral motive and the decorative designs of the Twelfth
Dynasty Egyptian scarabs.^"'' And it is worthy of remark that in Egypt
itself, so far as it is possible to gather from the data at our disposal, this
returning spiral system, which can be traced back to the Fourth Dynasty,
is throughout the earlier stages of its evolution restricted to scarabs.^^" The

28^ Compare especially the steatite button-seal that Egypt was the place where this motive

from Kuphonisi between Naxos and Amorgos, first originated, considers that it first reached

F. Diimmler (Jth. Mitth. 1886. Beilage 1. 1.) : the Greeks by Phoenician mediation in the

the green marble box from Amorgos (Op. cit. fifteenth cent. B.o. — a view which the Cretan

Beilage \. Fig. A) and the stone 'pyxis' in the and Aegean finds must certainly modify. He

form of a hut from Melos (Perrot et Chipiez, considers that it reached Central and Northern

La Gfrece Primitive p. 910, Fig. 461). Europe through mercantile intercourse due to

^t" In the SelUnic Journal, Vol. xiii. p. 221, the amber trade, and apparently favours the

I had already ventured to point out that the view that it came to those regions directly from

early spiral work of the Mycenaean jewels fitted Egypt. But the early spread of tliese spiral

on to that of the earlier stone ornaments of the motives among the Aegean populations aifords

Aegean islands and the spiral decoration of these the most natural explanation of its first ap-

in turn to the simple spiral system that attained pearance in the Danubian regions. As

its apogee in Egypt under the Twelfth and noticed below, it seems certain that the in-

Thirteenth Dynasties. But the 'missing fluence of this Aegeau spiral system had

link ' to complete the Egyptian connexion begun to leave its mark on Central and

was not then in my hands. Dr. Naue, in Northern European art in prae-Mycenaean

his recent work, Die Bronzezeit in Oberbayern times.

(Munich 1894, pp. 245, 246), while recognizing ^""^ Professor Petrie's observation.

[330] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 61

primitive Aegean imitations are also in the same way confined to stonework,
and were only at a later date transferred to metal and other materials. The
whole weight of the archaeological evidence is thus dead against the
generally received theory that the spiral ornament, as it appears on
Mycenaean art, originated in metal-work,^^'^ though its later application to
this and other materials naturally reacted on its subsequent development.

It may be regarded as certain that the early Aegean spiral system born
of this very ancient Egyptian contact was beginning to spread in a Northern
direction at a date anterior to the great days of Mycenae. At Lengyel in
Hungary and at Butmir in Bosnia the spiral decoration appears already on
pottery of late neolithic date, and some Hungarian clay stamps with a
quadruple spiral design might be taken to be the direct copies of the Cretan
steatite seal-stone represented above.^^^ Nor are there wanting indications
that the Aegean spiral system was leaving its impress on Italian pottery
before the days of Mycenaean contact.

On the present occasion it has been impossible to do more than call
attention to the far-reaching importance of this decorative result of the early
contact between the Aegean islanders and the Nile Valley in the third
millennium before our era. Of that early contact I was able in the course
of my Cretan explorations to collect other interesting evidence in the shape
of a series of primitive stone vessels of strikingly Egyptian types. In
particular, I acquired a stone pot with a cover identical with those found
by Professor Petrie in a Twelfth Dynasty deposit at Kahun. It was found
beside a skeleton in an early cist-grave at Arvi, on the South-Eastern coast of
Crete, in company with other stone vessels, some of a more indigenous
character, and a clay suspension vase, very like one from the Phaestos deposit.

The Twelfth Dynasty parallels above instituted are of special value to
our present inquiry from the corroboration that they afford to the chrono-

^"■J I am informed by Professor Petrie that his Dynasty accumulations. In Cyprus similar

researches on this class of scarab lead to this vessels are found in graves anterior, though not

conclusion. An illustrative series of these, long anterior, to the period of Mycenaean

including one of Tat-ka-ra of the Fourth influence. Milchhbfer, who like others derived

Dynasty, has been published by Dr. Naue the Mycenaean spiral decoration from wire-work

(Die Bronzezcit in Oberbayern, p. 145) from designs {Die Anfange der Kunst, p. 16 scqq.),

impressions supplied by Mr. Petrie. It would saw a corroboration of this theory in the gold

appear, however, that at least as early as the jewelry from the ' Treasures ' of Hissarlik

Thirteenth Dynasty this spiral decoration was (Schliemann, Ilios, p. 453 seqq.). Bat many

beginning to spread in Egypt to other objects objects from those 'Treasures' do not by any

besides scarabs. There is in the Ashmolean means belong to the remote period to which

Collection a black-ware vase from -Egypt of a they were originally referred by Dr. Schliemann.

style characteristic of Twelfth and Thirteenth Their whole/acics shows that they are not far

Dynasty deposits (cf. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and removed in date from Mycenaean times and

llawara, p. 25 and PI. XXVII. figs. 199-202) belong to the Sixth rather than the Second City,
which has a punctuated returning spiral orna- 2"= Sec especially the Hungarian clay seals

ment running round the upper part of its body. represented in the Compie Rendu du Congris

Specimens of similar ware, though without tlie Prihistorique, Budapest 1878, PI. LXX. Fig. 14

spiral decoration, were found at Khataneh by and cf. Fig. 13. The S-shaped design so fre-

M. Naville in company with Thirteenth Dynasty ([Ucnt on the Cretan seal-stones is also repre-

scarabs, in graves deep down below Eighteenth sented on Fig. 12 of the same series,

62 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [331]

logical evidence suggested by the Phaestos deposit. In the one case we have
actual association with Egyptian relics belonging to the first half of the
third millennium before our era ; in the other case we have, — what is
even more significant, — unquestionable imitation of the same. Both lines
of evidence enable us to refer to this early" period some of the more archaic
of the three-sided seal-stones and certain types of engraved stone ' buttons.'

But the evidence of the influence of Twelfth Dynasty decorative motives
on this group of early Cretan seal-stones, while itself supplying a landmark of
extreme antiquity, enables us to carry back to a still earlier date a yet more
primitive class of stones still untouched by this Egyptian influence.

Our chief standpoint for this chronological result is supplied by the
three-sided stones which of all the forms exhibiting the symbolic figures
may be described as the most characteristic.

Setting aside for the moment the most globular variety presenting purely
Mycenaean designs, these triangular stones may be divided into the following
classes : —

Glass I. — Elongated triangular stones presenting groups of symbols or
ornaments enclosed in an oval groove somewhat resembling an Egyptian
' cartouche.' Seen at their extremities the central perforation of the stone
is surrounded by a triangular groove {see Fig. 205, p. 288). The seals of this
class are generally of harder materials, such as cornelian, jasper or chalcedony.
They present the hieroglyphs in their most conventional form. The materials
and some of the designs show that they belong to the Mycenaean Period
proper. This class has already been dealt with in Section II.

Glass II. — Elongated triangular stones of the same shape as the other
with or without the oval groove or cartouche, but of more primitive execu-
tion, and of softer material, such as steatite. Both hieroglyphic and linear
symbols already occur on some of these, but there is a greater frequency of
single designs on the sides, and of purely decorative motives, in some cases
derived from Twelfth Dynasty scarabs.

Glass III. — Triangular stones of shorter and more compact form (Fig. 51),
with or without ' cartouche.' Like Class II. they are of soft materials, such

Fig. 51.

as steatite. S-shaped designs occasionally occur on these, which may possibly
be due to Egyptian suggestion, but more elaborate attempts to copy Twelfth
Dynasty motives are as yet rare. Human figures, birds and animals, or parts
of such, vases and other objects occur, occasionally grouped, and representa-

[332]

PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT

tions of men in various attitudes and employments, but no linear symbols are
found. The designs are more pictorial and less conventionalized than in the
other groups. This Class seetns to overlap Class II., but on the whole is
distinctly earlier in style. The subjects represented show a remarkable
parallelism with those on certain perforated disk-like stones found in
the island. Some of them are very rude and apparently go back beyond the
period of Twelfth Dynasty Egyptian influence.

The existence of this most primitive class of triangular seal-stones is of
special importance to our subject as showing the indigenous character of the
material out of which the later hieroglyphic script was evolved. Many of the
subjects, such as the vases, the heads of animals, the birds, branches and

Fig. 52a.

Fig. 52c.

Fig. 526.

horn-like figures, are essentially the same as those that we find conven-
tionalized and grouped together on the later sei'ies. Amongst the ceramic
forms we may even see traces of the earlier stages out of which the more
advanced types, such as the beaked oenochoe of Mycenaean times, were
evolved. These beaked vases take in fact, on some of the stones, the same
simple ' askos '-like shapes — betraying their origin from skin vessels — that
are characteristic of the earlier strata of Hissarlik and of the most primitive
cist-tombs of Amorgos. Others, again, are ' suspension ' vases with round
bottoms of equally primitive character, and are actually seen hanging from
poles. This independent evidence would alone sufiice to carry back the
early seal-stones of this class to the third millennium before our era. The
ceramic forms that they portray, Fig. 52, a, h and c for example, correspond

64 FROM CEETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [333]

with the round-bottomed types that precede the earliest class of Aegean
painted pottery, such as that of Thera or from the Kamares cave in Crete
itself.

It will thus be seen that the most typical forms of seals on which the
hieroglyphic characters occur, as well as the prototypes of the hieroglyphics
themselves, go back on Cretan soil to a very remote period. The earliest
class seems, indeed, to have received its characteristic stamp already before
the days of that intimate contact with Twelfth Dynasty Egypt which has left
its impress on some of the later decorative designs. The evidence collected
by Professor Petrie, at Kahun, tends to show that already by the time of
TJsertesen II., c. 2681 — 2660 B.C., Aegean foreigners were settled in Egypt.
If, therefore, the beginnings of the Twelfth Dynasty Egyptian influences
perceptible on the Cretan intaglios date approximately from that epoch,
this still earlier class on which this influence is as yet non-apparent
may well go back to the early part of the third millenium before our era.

It stands to reason indeed that the indigenous European culture repre-
sented by the primitive Cretan population must have reached a comparatively
advanced stage before it could have placed itself in the direct contact with
the higher Egyptian civilization. Nor was it with Egypt only that the sea-
faring enterprise of the Cretan islanders was already at this early date
opening up communication — whether predatory or commercial, it might be
hard to say. A remarkable piece of evidence is supplied by a seal-stone of the
earliest class (Fig. 62), which certainly seems to point to a connexion with
the Syrian coast. On one side of this stone is the unmistakable figure of
a camel in the act of kneeling, the knees of its fore-legs however being
bent in the wrong direction, as if drawn by one who had but a distant
knowledge of the animal.

An interesting pendant to this evidence of Oriental intrusion is supplied
by a triangular stone, in every respect resembling the early Cretan type,
brought back by the late Mr. Greville Chester from the North coast of Syria,
and now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. The facets are, in this case,
surrounded by the oval groove or cartouche which apparently belongs to the
more advanced specimens of the primitive series, but both from its compact
form and the rude style of the engraving the stone in question must be
referred to the same general period as those grouped above under Class III., and
can hardly be brought down later tlian the approximate date 2000 B.C.

Other independent evidence points to the same early intercourse with
Northern Syria. Certain seals in the form 'of a truncated or obtuse-ended
cone occur in Crete, some of which seem also to have been derived at the
same early date from this Oriental source. In the Phaestos deposit, above
referred to, three of these, and apparently a fragment of a fourth, were
found and it is to be noted as a significant feature that one of these and
the fragment were made of ivory. This imported material might in itself
warrant the suspicion that this class of seal, which in Crete seems to be
of exceptional occurrence, was of foreign origin. As a matter of fact, in
Northern Syria, where this must be regarded as a typical form, due no

[334]

PRIMITIVE! PICtOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT

doubt to Babylonian influence, these sub-conical seals are frequently formed
of ivory. Seals of this type do not seem to be at home in the intervening
Anatolian region, though they are occasionally found there, and their
appearance per saltum on Cretan soil must be reasonably construed as
evidence of an early maritime connexion between the Aegean island and
the North Syrian" coast. The Hagios Onuphrios find indeed affords a
still more irrefragable proof of this contact in a green steatite seal, the
upper part of which represents a seated eagle. An exactly similar type
from the Hauran is to be seen in the Ashmolean Collection.

Are we therefore to believe that Crete in the third millennium before
our era was occupied by a sea-fariug race— perhaps Semitic— from the Syrian
coast? Such a supposition might explain some of the phenomena with
which we have to deal, but in any case it must be allowed that there is a
distinctly local character about many of these early Cretan stones. The primi-
tive seal-stones of the triangular form described are, as we have seen, at home
in Crete. That their range may have extended to other parts of the Aegean
is possible, and an example of a somewhat later type procured at Smyrna by
Mr. Greville Chester (Fig. 53) and now in the Ashmolean Collection rather

i>'6a.

points to some such diffusion, Smyrna being a well-known gathering point of
Aegean finds. On the other hand these stones do not seem to be found
on the mainland of Asia Minor. Certain three-sided stones of a peculiar
' gabled-shaped ' class are indeed widely diffused in Cilicia and Cappadocia, but
they are as a rule much larger and seem to have no immediate connexion with
the Cretan form.^" The occurrence of a single example of a seal-stone identical
both in shape and technique with the most typical Cretan forms on the
North Syrian coast is as yet an isolated phenomenon in that region, whereas
in Crete itself this form is clearly indigenous and of wide distribution. We
have here therefore in all probability to deal with an object brought to the

^^ In the case of these stones only one side,
which is larger than the others, is engraved, the
other two being set at an obtuse angle and
forming a sloping back like a gable. ' Gable-
shaped ' may therefore be a convenient term to

apply to this well-marked East-Anatolian class,
which bears no obvious resemblance to the
equilateral stones with which we are concerned.
It may yet have a common origin.

66 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [335]

Syrian coast from Crete by the same maritime agencies that in the contrary
direction brought Syrian forms to the Aegean island.

The materials that my recent researches have enabled me to put
together point clearly to the conclusion that the early engraved stones of
Crete are in the main of an indigenous and non-Asiatic character. At the
outset indeed we are confronted by a negative phenomenon which brings
this archaeological result into strong relief. The influence, namely, of
Babylonian cylinders is altogether non-apparent. At Melos and Amorgos
in deposits of the same age as the early Cretan seal-stones cylinders of native
work are found in vsrhich the Chaldaean form is at times associated with a
decoration which appears to be derived from the Egyptian spiral motives
already referred to. On the mainland of Asia Minor again early indigenous
imitations of Babylonian cylinders are also widely diffused. In Cyprus they
are predominant, and they are very characteristic of the finds along the coast
of Syria. It is evident then that a people settling in Crete from that side
would have imported this type of seal, and we should expect to be confronted
with the same prevalence of the cylindrical type as in Cyprus. But, as has
been already observed, this characteristically Asiatic type is at any rate so
rare in Crete as to be hitherto unknown among the insular finds. This
noteworthy fact seems to exclude the supposition that Crete was occupied by
colonists from the Syrian coast at any time during the long period when
Syria itself was dominated by Babylonian culture.

We must therefore suppose that if such an occupation took place it was
at any rate at an extremely remote period. The parallelism between certain
Syrian types and those of Crete is certain. There is moreover a great
deal besides in the figures and style of engraving of many of the Cretan
stones which strongly recalls other primitive stones found on the easternmost
Mediterranean coasts. The early Cretan relics may indeed be said to belong to
the same East Mediterranean province of early glyptic design as many
similar objects from Syria and Palestine. But, after duly recognizing these
undoubted affinities which can to a great extent be explained by the
assimilating influences of early commerce, it must nevertheless be allowed
that the most characteristic of the early types of Cretan seal-stones are true
native products. They are in fact in situ geographically. If in the one
direction they seem to find parallels per saltum on the coasts of Syria and
Canaa;n, in another they fit on to the early engraved stones of Cilicia and the
more western part of Anatolia, and they are equally linked on the other side
with primitive types of the Aegean islands and the Greek mainland.

Some early forms of seal-stones found in Crete have a much wider
dififusion, extending not only to the neighbouring tracts of Asia Minor and
the Aegean islands, but still further afield to the West. The button-like stones
for example have a very extensive range in Greece and the Levant, they are
found in Cyrene and even appear as imported foreign forms in the Nile
valley. These stone buttons may eventually prove to have quite an excep-
tional interest in the history of Aegean art, as the direct progenitors of the
lentoid beads so much affected by the Mycenaean engravers. The most

r 2

[33(5]

PEIMITIVE PICTOGEAPHS AND SCRIPT

primitive types of the Mycenaean lentoid gems exhibit somewhat conical
backs, which may be regarded as a modification of the perforated hump of
the typical buttons. The 'buttons' themselves in their original form go
back to a much earlier period than the Mycenaean proper, for, as has been
shown above, it is upon their decorations that the influence of the Twelfth
Dynasty scarab motives is peculiarly apparent.^!

But these button-like ornaments themselves, with their protuberant
perforated backs, what are they but the reproduction in soft stone of proto-
types of pinched-up clay ? A clay seal of an incurving cylindrical form, but,
unlike the Asiatic cylinders, having incised devices at top and bottom and
side perforations, was found in the early deposit of Hagios Onuphrios near
Phaestos already referred to. And the almost exact reproductions of some of
the stone buttons in clay actually occur in the Italian terremare and in the
Ligurian cave deposits of the neolithic and seneolithic periods (see Fig.
54 a—c). The clay ' stamp ' from the terramara of Montale in the Modenese,

Fig, 54. — Clat Stamps from Eaely Italian Deposits (reduced to about ^ linear).

a. Pollera Cave, Finale, Liguria (in the Morelli Collection at Genoa).

!>. Caverna del Sanguineto, Finale, Liguria. (Of. A. Issel, Note paletnologicho suUa coUczione del

Sig. a. B. Eossi, Tav. II. 5, 6).

c. Terramara of Montale (in the Parma Museum).

represented in Fig. 54c, the top of which, now broken, was probably once
perforated, is not only analogous in form, but bears a simple geometrical
design almost identical with that on an early steatite ' button-seal' from Knosos.
On the other hand the rudely curving design on h, from the Sanguineto Cave
in Liguria, strangely recalls the S-shaped designs so usual on the earliest
class of triangular seals from Crete (see below Figs. 62, 65).

These terracotta objects, which have sometimes been described as^mte-

" See above, p. 327, Figs. 49 e, g, h.

fEOM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

[337]

deras^^ from the name givea to the clay stamps wherewith the ancient
Mexicans painted their bodies, are also found in the early deposits of
Hungary ^^ and the Lower Danube and reappear in the earliest strata of
Hissarlik.

It is not necessary to suppose that these clay stamps on button-seals of
Italy and the lands to the North of Greece are of equally early date with
some of the Cretan ' buttons.' But they may fairly be taken to show that
the clay prototypes of the Aegean seals are European in their affinities.
In the West the more primitive clay stamps might well live on to a much
later time, while in the Eastern Mediterranean basin the example of Egypt
and Chaldaea would naturally promote the substitution of stones— at first of
soft and easily engraved materials such as steatite — for the same purpose.

The earlier and simpler series of seal-stones which in Crete precedes
the more conventionalized class described in the preceding sections throws a
welcome light on the fundamental signification of these later pictographs.
The general continuity of ideas is undeniable. The earlier stones to a large
extent are of the same triangular type as the later, perforated along their
axis and often indeed exhibiting on their several faces somewhat earlier
versions of the same designs that reappear among the 'hieroglyphs' of the
later class, though in this case single figures, or at most groups of two or three,
generally occupy a whole face of the stone.

In a large number of instances taken from stones of this earlier type,
gathered by me from various parts of Crete, one side is occupied by a human
figure which is evidently intended to rej)resent the owner of the seal. An
analogous figure appears on Fig. 36 of the already illustrated series and its
frequent recurrence clearly shows that these pictographic stones bore a
personal relation to their possessor. Several examples of the more primitive
class seem in fact to indicate the quality and pursuits of their ov/ner. On
the three-sided stone. Fig. 55, for instance, obtained by me from the site of

55a. 55b.

55c.

FiQ. 55. — Gbey Steatite (Peaesos).

Praesos, the owner was evidently a master of flocks and herds. On one side
he appears between a goat and an early form of vessel with handle and spout,

'^ A. Issel, Scavi reeenti nella Caverna delU
Arene Gandide in Liguria, and see Dr. R.
Vevneau, Las pintaderas de gran Canaria, Ann.

p. la Soc. Espanola de Hist. Nat. xii. 1883.

3' See above, p. 330, n. 29/ Here a direct
Aegean influence seems traceable.

[338] PRIMITIVE PICTOGEAPHS AND SCRIPT 69

bearing on his shoulders a pole from which are suspended what appear to
be four skin-buckets, no doubt intended to contain milk. On the second side
he is seen seated on a stool holding in each hand a two-handled vase, and on
the third appears a goat— a further allusion to his flocks. In Fig. 66 we see

566. 56c.

Fig. 56,— Yellow Steatite (Bought at Cakdia).

on one side a warrior holding a spear, but there appears to have been a more
peaceful side to his avocations. On another face is seen a pole with pails of the
same kind as those held on to the shoulders of the figure already referred to,
and on the third side a goat again makes its appearance. In Fig. 57, again,

57«. 576. 57c.

Fig. 57.— Black Steatite (Central Crete).

are engraved two poles with vessels of the same kind associated on the other
faces with a man and an animal of uncertain species looking backwards, and
in Fig. 58 a man is seen in two positions, standing and squatting, accompanied
by round-bottomed vessels of primitive Aegean type — notably a kind of
aslios such as is found in the early cemeteries of Amorgos. (See Fig. 525.)

In Fig. 59a the pole with suspended vessels is brought into immediate
connexion with a figure having the limbs and body of a man but apparently
either lion-headed or coifed in a lion's scalp. In this case we seem to have
the primitive predecessor of the lion-headed human figures of Mycenaean

FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

[339]

art;^* the parallelisna indeed is of a double nature, for the lion-headed being
on this primitive seal-stone is evidently intended to hold the pole with the
vessels. Had space allowed he would doubtless have been represented
bearing it on his shoulders as in Fig. 55.

58«. 586. 58c.

Fig. 58. — BnowN Steatite (Crete— Unoektain Locality).

But this carrier's function is precisely what is so often found in
the case of the mysterious daemons on the later gems, and in the well-
known fresco from Mycenae. The association with vessels also reminds us

59a.

59b.

Fig. 59. — Ceete (Berlin MirsEU"M),

59c.

of a familiar attribute of the lion-headed and other kindred beings of
Mycenaean times, and in the spouted vases that appear on this same group
of early seal-stones we may certainly see the prototypes of those carried by
these later daemons.^* It looks as if in the case of the present stone the
'place of honour were occupied by some semi-divine protector or mythical
ancestor of the actual owner of the seal ; and we may trace perhaps a refer-
ence to an originally totemic lion of a tribe or family.

On the succeeding face what appears to be the same lion-headed figure
is seen standing immediately behind a man in front of whom are two polyp-

2* See on these especially A. B. Cook, Animal Worship in the Mycenaean Age, J.H.S.
jfiv. (1894), p. 81 aeqq.

Vol.

[340] PEIMITIYE PICTOGRAPHS AND SOEIPT 71

like objects. On the remaining side (59c) there are three fishes. In
Fig. 60 a parallel example will be seen of a figure, in this case apparently
purely human, raising his hand in the gesture of protection over the head of
a man who stands in front of him. The figure in front has his arms lowered
in the usual attitude of the personage who seems to represent the owner of
the seal. Here too we have the accompaniments of the pole slung with
vessels, and the goat.

60a. 60b. 60c.

Fig. 60.— Dark Steatite (Central Crete).

Fig. 61 shows on one side a rude two-headed figure in which we
must again recognize the prototype of a class of designs which played
an important part in the Mycenaean gems of Crete.^^ On the other
sides of this stone are some uncertain figures ; one seems intended to repre-
sent a tall-spouted ewer and a polyp-like object resembling those on Fig. 59
again makes its appearance.

61rt. 616. 61c.

Fig, 61. — Black Steatite (Crete — Uncertain Locality).

In Fig. 62, already referred to, the owner stands behind a curved design
with cross lines, which from Egyptian analogy may perhaps be taken to
stand for a walled enclosure. We have here, it may be, a chief in his strong-
hold, and on another side of the same stone appears a camel, which must cer-
tainly be taken to indicate relations of some sort, — not improbably commercial

'^ Cf. for instance tlie lentoid intaglio found a pair of human legs and a tmnk bifurcate into
in Crete (Milchhbfer, Anftinge der Kunst, p. 78, the upper parts of a bull and goat
Fig. 50 ; Cook op. cit. p. 120, Fig. 15), in whicli

72 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [341]

relations, — with the Syrian coast. The third side here with the S-shaped
design, is perhaps merely supplementary or ornamental, as again in Fig. 63,

62«. 62&. 62c.

'■Fig. 62. — Gketlsh Yellow Steatite (Ckete)

where the owner is associated on another side with the head of a long-
horned ram, a not infrequent feature on these early seals.

eza. 636. 63a

Fig. 63.— Yellow Steatite (Crete).

On Fio-. 64 the ram's head is seen again associated with a bird and
scorpion, the latter a favourite symbol on early Asianic and Syrian seal-
stones.

. eia. 6«. 64c.

Fig. 64.— Yellow Steatite (Crete).

It seems probable that the long-necked stout-legged bird engraved on
this stone is intended for an ostrich, in which case we have another interesting
indication of Southern commerce. The intimate contact already at this

[342]

PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT

early date existing with Egypt makes it not improbable that the trade-route
by which ostriches' eggs — and no doubt their plumes as well — found their
way to Mycenae had its origin in the Aegean enterprise of the third millen-
nium B.C.

In Fig. 63, an S-shaped design, similar to that noticed above, is asso-
ciated on the remaining sides of the stone with two pairs of pictorial
symbols, in one case two ibexes' heads, in the other apparently a cock and
an uncertain object. This is the earliest evidence of the cock, — the original
home of which is traditionally sougijt in Persia, — on European soil.

65a. 656. 65c.

Fig. 65. — Brown Steatite (Central Ckete).

A commercial purpose is occasionally indicated by a number of incised
dots or pellets which occur beside the figures on these primitive stones, and
which in all cases seem to belong to a duodecimal system. In Fig. 37 of the
pictographic seals already represented, which might so far as style is con-
cerned have been included in this earlier group, there are seen on one face

66fe. 66J.

Fig. 66.— BnowN Steatite Disk-Bead (Kamakes, Crete).

twelve pellets and on two of the narrower sides of the stone two groups of three.
On a remarkable engraved disk, Fig. 66, obtained by me at Kamares on the
Southern slope of Ida, also of early date, a standing figure clad in a long tunic
appears with four dots on either side of him. On the other side in the spaces

FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

[343]

between the various figures are three dots. On an ivory cone, again, from the
Phaestos deposit four similar pellets appear, two on each side of a rude figure
of an eagle.

This early duodecimal system is found again on an interesting series of
engraved stones, one a seal of curiously Cilician or 'Hittite' type found at
Palaeokastro near Baia, opposite the island of Elaphonisi on the Laconian
coast, containing a graduated series of similar groups of pellets, first twelve
arranged in three rows of four, two seals with six on each, and other small
perforated cubes which seem to have stood for units.

The stone Fig. 66 is of great interest as affording one of the earliest
examples of a group of pictorial symbols. Round the goat which forms the
principal type on one side are three smaller figures — one apparently
representing the upper part of an archer in the act of shooting, another a
human eye, and below the goat an uncertain object.

In certain cases the figures on these early engraved stones seem to have
a reference to some episode in personal or family history. On the green
steatite disk Fig. 67, the other face of which is occupied by two goats, a
branch, and other objects, we see what, owing to the naiveness of the art,
may either be interpreted as a comic or a tragic scene. A figure in a long
tunic, behind which is a high-spouted vase, is represented attacking and
apparently overthrowing a naked figure seated on a stool.

67a. 676.

Fig. 67.— Green Steatite Disk-Bead (Crete).

Various designs in the primitive series recur in a more conventionalized
form in the later class of Cretan seal-stones. On Fig. 68, found near
Siteia, are already seen two symbols like the 'broad arrow' of the later
hieroglyphic series, and the goat and the skin buckets slung on the pole
again make their appearance.

On Fio-. 69, what seems to be a ruder version of the same symbol is seen
in front of an animal or perhaps a centaur. Then follow on the remaining
sides three spearmen and perhaps a dog.

The Twelfth Dynasty influence, as already remarked, is very perceptibly

[344]

PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT

OSa.

Fig. 68.— Steatite (Found ndar Siteia, Ceete)

Fig. 69.— (Crete, Berlin Museum).

70a. 706. 70c.

Fig. 70. — Gkeen Steatite (Central Crete).

FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

[345]

on some of these early seal-stones. The origin of the designs on Figs. 70a
and 7 la from Egyptian scarab motives has already been illustrated by the
sketch on p. 327.

Fig. 72a is a design of decorative character, also probably derived from a
Twelfth Dynasty original, the well-known type, namely, of a scarab with its
face divided into two halves, each containing a divergent spiral pattern.
This" design is followed on the remaining sides of the stone by a
rude animal and the head of a bull or ox between two ' swastika '-like
fisures and with a branch above.

72a. 726. 72c.

Fig. 72.— Black Steatite (Bought in Candia).

Fig. 73a may also be traced to the same Egyptian source. Fig. 736
seems to represent a butterfly— another anticipation of Mycenaean art.

73a. 736.

Fig. 73.— Steatite (Ceete, Phabstos Deposit).

The analogies supplied by these earlier classes of Cretan seal-stones are
of fundamental importance to the present inquiry. Some of these more
primitive types are the immediate forerunners of the later 'hieroglyphic
group and indeed in their forms and symbolism are hardly distinguishable
from them. What is true of the one must to a large extent be true of the
other, and, as already pointed out,3« the personal relation in ^vhich these earlier
stones clearly stand to their possessor warrants us in believing that the same
holds good of the later class.

3" See pp. 301, 302.

[346] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 77

§ VII. The Linear Signs and their Relation to the Pictographic

Series.

It is time to turn from tlie pictograpliic series of symbols to the linear
and quasi-alphabetic forms with which they stand in such a close relation.
Evidence has already been brought forward which shows that to a certain
extent both forms of writing overlapped. As already noticed, linear forms
appear on three-sided seal-stones in every respect resembling those which
exhibit the pictographic signs, although on the earliest of these pictographic
seal-stones they do not as yet make their appearance. They occur however
on button-shaped stones belonging to that period of Cretan history which is
marked by the decorative influence of Twelfth Dynasty Egyptian models,
and a stone of this character was found, as already mentioned, in the
Phaestos deposit. That the quasi-alphabetic symbols were employed by the
Mycenaean population in the island is further borne out by a variety of data.
They occur, as we have seen, on the walls of the prehistoric building at
Knosos, which seems to belong to the same age as the Palaces of Tiryns and
Mycenae or the buildings of the Sixth City of Troy. They are found again
on cups and vases belonging to the same early period, on a Mycenaean
amethyst gem from Knosos and again on vase-handles found at Mycenae
itself It is evident therefore that some inscriptions in these linear
characters are as early chronologically as many of the hieroglyphic series,
although, typologically considered, the pictographic group is certainly the
earlier.

The elements at our disposal for the reconstruction of this linear system
may be recapitulated as follows : —

1. — Inscribed seal-stones.

2. — Inscribed steatite pendants and whorls from early Cretan deposits.

3. — The graffiti on vases from Goulds and Prodromes Botzano and on
the perforated clay pendant from the cave of Idaean Zeus.

4. — Inscribed Mycenaean gem representing a flying eagle, from Knosos.

5. — The inscribed blocks of the prehistoric building at KnSsos and
another from Phaestos.

6. — The vase-handles from Mycenae and other graffiti on vases from
Mycenaean tombs at Nauplia, Menidi, &c.

7. — ^The steatite ornament from Siphnos.

From these various sources it is possible to put together thirty-two
different characters (see Table I.) which may be confidently referred to
Mjcenaean or still earlier times. But an inspection of the linear signs thus
collected at once reveals striking points of resemblance with those of the
Cypriote and Asianic syllabaries on the one hand, and on the other with the
graffiti signs observed by Professor Petrie on ' Aegean ' pottery from
Egyptian deposits at Kahun and Gurob. To these latter I am able to add a

FEOM CKETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

[347]

group of linear characters (Fig. 74) on a foot-shaped seal of black steatite
obtained by Mr. Greville Chester in Lower Egypt, and now in the Ashmolean
Museum at Oxford. The signs on this stone seem to belong to the same
system as the Cretan.

Fig. 74.— Black Steatite Seal (Lowee Egypt).

The following table of comparisons (I.) shows the Cretan and other
Aegean linear forms and the kindred signs of the Cypriote and Egyptian
series.

The following are the sources from which the signs indicated in the
first and fourth columns of the accompanying Table (I.) are derived.

1. — Seal-stone, Knosos.

2. — Cretan vases, Goulds and Prodromes Botzano.

3. — (ft) Seal-stone, Province of Siteia. (6) Perforated steatite, Siphnos.
A common pictographic symbol is placed in brackets.

4. — Vase, Goulks. Clay pendant, Cave of Idaean Zeus. Amphora-
handle, Tholos tomb, Menidi.

5. — Seal-stone, Praesos.

6. — (ft) Steatite whorl, Phaestos ; (&) Seal-stone, Praesos.

7. — Seal-stones, Knfisos and Province of Siteia.

8. — Seal-stone, Praesos.

9. — Vase, Goulds.
10. — Seal-stone, Province of Siteia.
11. — Block of Mycenaean building, Knosos.
12. — Block of Mycenaean building, Knosos. '

13. — Perforated steatite, Siphnos. Handle. of stone-vase, from ruined
house, Akropolis, Mycenae.
14. — Vase, Goulds.

15. — Steatite pendant, early cist-grave, Arbi.
16. — Steatite whorl, Phaestos.

17. — {a) Perforated disk, Knosos. (5) Early sepulchral deposit, Phaestos.
18. — Seal-stone, Knosos.
19. — Block of Mycenaean building, Knosos.

20. — Amethyst intaglio, Mycenaean style, representing eagle: Knosos.
21. — •Whorl, Phaestos.

[348] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT. 79

22.— («) Block of Mycenaean building, Knosos. (6) Ditto, and also vase,

Goulks.

23._Perforated steatite, Messara. Amphora-handle, Thalamos tomb,

Mycenae.

24.— Mycenaean amethyst (of. No. 20), Knosos. Amphora-handle.

Thalamos tomb, Mycenae.

25.— Mycenaean amethyst (cf. No. 20), Knosos.

26.— (a) Amphora-handle, Thalamos tomb, Mycenae (cf. No. 23, 24).
{h) Block of Mycenaean building, Knosos.

27. — Handle of stone-vase, from ruined house, Akropolis, Mycenae.

28. — Cretan seal-stone.

29.— Handle of stone-vase, Mycenae (cf. Nos. 13, 27) : partly overlapping
a P-like sign.

30. — Perforated steatite, Siphnos (cf Nos. 3, 13).

31. — Block of Mycenaean building, Knosos.

32. — Perforated steatite, Siphnos (cf Nos. 3, 13, 30).

To these may be added the K-like sign on the button-seal (Fig. 13)
discovered by Professor Halbherr.

The comparisons instituted in the above table abundantly show that
between the Cretan and Mycenaean script, to which the general name
' Aegean ' may be conveniently given, and the signs noted by Professor Petrie
on the potsherds of Kahun and Gurob there are striking points of agreement.
Out of thirty-two Aegean characters no less than twenty are practically
identical with those found in Egypt. The parallelism with Cypriote
forms is also remarkable, some fifteen of the present series agreeing with
letters of the Cypriote syllabary.

That in the case of the Kahun and Gurob signs the proportion should be
somewhat larger is only what might have been expected from the relative
antiquity of the Egyptian group. As however the evidence on the strength of
which Professor Petrie maintains the great age of the foreign signs found on
these Egyptian sites has been lately disputed, a few words on the subject
will not be out of place.

That here and there some later elements had found their way into the
rubbish-heaps of Kahun may be freely admitted without prejudice to the
general question of their great antiquity. There seem to me to be good
reasons for believing tliat a few specimens of painted Aegean pottery found
belong to a later period than the Twelfth Dynasty. Amongst these fragments
are two which are unquestionably of Naukratite fabric. But even of this
comparatively small painted class the greater part are of at least Mycenaean
date. The most characteristic specimens show in fact points of affinity with
a peculiar ceramic class found in Southern Crete and which seems for some
time to have held its own there against the more generally diffused Mycenaean
types of pottery. Specimens of the class referred to, which in their dark
ground colour with applied white and red retain the traditions of some
of the earliest Thera ware, have been found in a votive cave near Eamares

TABLE 1.

i < o.

< SS

I = b

" m o

s = I-

o a.

1 ^ =-

2 ? tJ

uJ o;

H uJ

O I-

a. ci.

> <

u X

■^ = t"
^ _i o
<c <

UJ < <

q; UJ X

q <j

o z H

ui O III

UJ I/)

^- ^

O H

— cj

°- <

> I

CED

™

F =1

V
H

77 A>1

ri/

□3

/\A

Hffl

o /»/

y/1

/£■

A
V

/<0

[350] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRPIT 81

on the soutbem steeps of Mount Ida, immediately above a Mycenaean nekro-
polis, two of the bee-hive tombs of which I had occasion to visit and in which
Professor Halbherr has now excavated an intact Mycenaean tomb. The above
cave was excavated by Dr. Hazzldaki, the President of the Syllogos or
Literary Society at Candia, and the objects found are now exhibited in the
little Museum of that Society.^"" My own observations of these have led me
to the conclusion that the ceramic class here represented, though of a,rchaic
aspect, may slightly overlap the more purely Mycenaean pottery in the island.
A spray on one specimen resembles a design on a Mycenaean pot from the
prehistoric Palace at Knosos ; a fish on another recalls similar forms on the
painted hut-urns from Cretan tholos-tombs, and a barbaric head and arm finds
a close parallel in a painted fragment from tomb 25 of the lower town of
Mycenae. Nos. 1, 6,7, and 14 and No. 13 of Professor Petrie's Plate of
Aegean pottery show, so far as their shape is concerned, a greater affinity
with this Cretan class than with any hitherto known ceramic group, and the
analogy certainly suggests an early Mycenaean date of some of the Kahun
sherds. Both the Kamares pots and those from Kahun find, on the whole,
their best comparisons with some early types from Tiryns (Schliemann,
PI. xxiv. c. xxviii. and xxYiid.). It may be confidently stated that during
the Aegean period, which roughly corresponds with that of the Twelfth and
Thirteenth Dynasties, and for which the name ' Period of Amorgos ' has
been here suggested — no such finish of ceramic fabric either in form, glaze
or colour as either the vases of Kamares or the fragments from Kahun had
yet been achieved. If then these vessels were imported into Egypt at that
early date they could not have come from the Aegean islands and still less
from the mainland of Greece or from Italy.

But while this, presumably the latest class of pottery found in the Kahun
rubbish-heaps, is for the most part of early Mycenaean date, there seems no
good reason for doubting Mr. Petrie's conclusion that the ruder pottery from
the same deposit exhibiting the incised characters of non-Egyptian forms may
go back in part at least to the days of the Twelfth Dynasty. Isolated
appearances will not mislead the archaeologist as to the general character of
the deposits with which he is dealing, and all their associations point to the
time of the Twelfth Dynasty as the chief period of their formation.^' At
Gurob again certain of the signs occurred under circumstances which seem
to involve the same early date, while others were found on sherds which
from their character and the position in which they lay belonged as clearly

^^'^ A paper on the Kamares pottery was read by elude a later date than that of the Twelfth

Mr. J. L. Myres in the Anthropological Section Dynasty. Yet these signs belong to the same

of the British Association in 1893. It is to he class as the others, and occur on pottery of the

hoped that this important study may shortly same rude fabric which occurs, together with

see the light in a fuller form. I believe that some of the marks, in foundation deposits of

my own conclusions as to the date of the pot- Usertesen II,, and which, in Mr. Petrie's

tery agree with those of Mr. Myres. opinion {Kahun, Gurob, and Eawara, p, 43),

■*' The special circumstances under which ' cannot be mistaken for that of any subseq^uent

the signs numbered 141, 21, 125, 126 in Mr. aga'
Petrie's list were found, seem altogether to ex-

FHOM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

[351]

to the days of the Eighteenth Dynasty and to the most flourishing period of
Mycenaean culture. So far as the early date of many of these signs is
concerned, their extraordinary correspondence with those on the Cretan stones
must be regarded as a striking corroboration of Mr. Petrie's views.

Another close parallel to these linear characters and at the same time
another proof of their early date has been supplied by the discovery of
similar marks on potsherds discovered by Mr. Bliss in the earliest strata

2
vt

-J

— -T

■ ' 1

-4-

W*''

Fig. 75. — Signs on Potsherds at Tell-el-Hest Compaeed with Aegean Foems.

(Cities I. and Sub. 1) at Tell-el-Hesy, which on a variety of evidence are
referred by him to a date anterior to 1500 B.c.^^" The examples given above
(Fig. 75) will show that there is something more than a general resemblance

^7" See F. J. Bliss, A Mound of Many Cities,
or Tell-el-Hesy Excavated, pp. 21, 23, 25, 28,
29, 30, 33, and 42. These marks on potsherds

are described as found exclusively, with the
exception of No. 21, in the earliest strata,
No. 21 is the last on the list below.

G 2

[352] PEIMITIVE PlCTOGRAPHS AND SOUlPT ^i

between these marks and the Aegean signs. By including those of Kahnn
and Gurob the number of parallels may be appreciably increased.^^

The correspondence of forms in the case of several of the characters
found at Kahun and Gurob with those of the Aegean series is in several
cases of such a nature as to exclude the supposition of a merely fortuitous
resemblance. Few, I imagine, will believe that such a sign as No. 22 was
about the same time evolved independently at Gurob, Knosos and Mycenae.

The same holds good of several of the Cypriote letters. But the
Cypriote comparisons are specially valuable since the possibility cannot be
excluded that they supply a clue to the actual phonetic value of some of the
Aegean characters.

On Table II. I have put together various examples of the Aegean
characters which occur in groups of two or more. They are from the follow-
ing sources : —

1. Vase, Prodromes Botzano (p. 279).

2. Cup, Goulks (p. 278).

3. Amethyst, Knosos (p. 281).

4. Seal, Knosos (p. 293). Signs on two sides, but unfortunately much worn.

5. Seal from Siteia Province (p. 297). Onanother side ideograph of a man.

6. Block of Mycenaean building, Knosos (p. 282).

7. Do.

8. Seal, Praesos (p. 293). Signs on two sides, two sprays as pictograph
No. 59 on the third.

9. Amphora-handle, Mycenae (p. 273).

10. Handle of stone vessel, Mycenae (p. 273).

11. Button-seal, Phaestos (p. 285).

12. Perforated steatite, Siphnos (p. 287).

To these must be added the Phaestos whorl. Fig. 11&.

The parallels supplied by the Cypriote syllabary suggest the following
attempt to transliterate some of these groups : —

1. 11 -le- lo.

2. 11 ■ pa' lo.

3. Ko ■ sa 'ja • ho.

4. E'le.

It remains however uncertain whether the characters should be read from

^ Where so much still remains to be dis- Padre Amerano near Finalmarina in Liguria.

covered, it is worth while contemplating at In connexion with the linear forms I cannot

least the possibility that these early signs had help referring to certain signs on early pottery

also a Western and European extension. In the from the lake-dwellings of Paladru, near Voiron

case of the purely pictographio class, the in the Isfere, some of which are remarkably

parallel supplied by the Maraviglie in the suggestive of Aegean parallels. For the pottery

Maritime Alps has already been cited, to which see Chantre, Palafittes du Lae de Paladru,

may now be added another similar group of Album, PI. X. Figs 1-5 and 7.
sculptured signs more recently discovered by

FEOM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

[353]

left to right or from right to left, neither is it clear where the inscription on
the Siphnos stone which presents the largest number of parallels with the
Cypriote should begin. Beginning with the sign which as the drawing stands
is the topmost on the right, continuing with the lowest and then proceeding

TABLE II.

CROUPS OF linear' SYMBOLS

•
* OfO

boustrophgdon, the inscription as transliterated by Cypriote letters might

Si ■ mo • /I -no- se- to.

The indications however are too slight to base upon them any too
definite conclusions. So far as they go it must be admitted that the phone-
tic equivalents suggested by the Cypriote parallels seem to belong to a

[354] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 85

language other than Greek. That we have to deal with a syllabary seems
to be clear from the small number of characters contained in the several
groups. The close correspondence of this whole series of signs with the
Cypriote has already been sufficiently demonstrated. But the very fact that
the Cypriote syllabary seems to have been derived from this earlier Aegean
and ' Mycenaean ' script, or perhaps some parallel Asianic branch, reacts against
the Hellenic character of the original. For the Cypriote characters were
never originally framed for Greek use. The Greek of the Cypriote
inscriptions always seems to be clothed in a foreign dress ill-fitting at
the best.

There is indeed the strongest presumption for believing that in Crete at
Idast the race amongst whom the earlier Aegean characters were originally
rife was of non-Hellenic stock. It was clearly recognized by the Greeks
themselves that the original inhabitants of Crete were ' barbarian ' or un-
Greek. Herodotos, who brings the Lykians as well as the Kaunians of Karia
from Crete, expressly says that the whole of Crete was once occupied by
' barbarians.' ^^* But the most authentic evidence of this non-Hellenic origin
is the name of Eteokretes or ' true Cretans ' applied by the Dorian colonists
of the island to the representatives of the indigenous stock, who long
continued to live on in the fastnesses of Ida and Dikta. It would even
appear that the language of these Cretan aborigines maintained itself in the
extreme East of the island to the borders of the historic period. The evidence
of this is supplied by an inscription recently found among the ruins of
Praesos ^^ and now preserved in the Museum of the Syllogos at Candia.
This inscription, though written in archaic Greek characters, is composed
in a non-Greek language, in this respect recalling the two Lemnian in-
scriptions, from which however it differs in epigraphy and apparently in
language. The following facsimile is from a photograph kindly made for me
by Professor Halbherr.

The Praesian stone contains letter-forms in some respects diverging from
those of the archaic Greek inscriptions of the island, and in the types of iota
and pi that are there presented as well as in the early use of S shows a
greater approach to Phoenician models. In the concluding letters which form
the word Anait there seems indeed to be a direct reference to the Semitic
Anat or Anaitis, ' the Persian Artemis,' whose image appears on one of the
shields found in the cave of the Idaean Zeus.^^'' That at the period when
the Praesian inscription was written the indigenous element in the island
may have been still largely under Phoenician influence is probable enough,
but the inscription itself does not seem to be Semitic.

We may fairly conclude that the language here found represents that of
the Eteocretans of whom, as we know, Praesos was a principal stronghold,
and it is reasonable to suppose that this was the original language of the

38" i. 173 tV yap Kp-fiTrii> ei^ov rh TTaKaihv vol. iii.), p. 451 seqq.
^aaav fiipfiapoi. 39a jr. Halbherr e P. Orsi, AntichiiA dell'

39 Comparetti, Lc Icggi di Goriyna e U allre Antra di Zeus Idea, p. 106 seqq., and Atlas

Iscrizioni arcauhe Oretesi, 1893 {Man, Ant. PI. II, ; and of. Comparetti, loe. cit. p. 452

PROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.

[355]

early script with which we are now dealing. But the materials for com-
parison are as yet too imperfect on either side to admit of satisfactory
results.

In Roman letters the inscription seems to read as follows:— <"

f//NKALMITK/
OS I BARXE I AllfO
ARK/APSET I MEG^
ARKRKOKLES | GEP
/ASEPGNANAIT

The original is written boustrophMon, the first, third, and fifth lines
running from right to left. The AI iu the last line are in ligature.

It is possible that in the earlier period during which the indigenous
Cretan script, both pictographic and linear, seems to have taken its origin
the sole or preponderating element is the island may have been the ' Eteo-
cretan.' It is certain however that at the time when the Homeric poems
were composed Crete contained representatives of several other races. The
polyglot character of the island is indeed clearly brought out by the locus
classicus in the Odyssey.*"' The Greek element both Dorian and Achaian is
already at home there and seems indeed to have been already of old standing
in at least the central district of the island.

But if, at any rate towards the close ot the Mycenaean period, there was
already a Greek population in Crete, it becomes probable that the mysterious

*• I have followed Comparetti's suggestions loc, eit.

^"^ xix. 1. 172 i

[356] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 87

characters with which we are dealing may also have been used by meu of
Greek speech. And from the fact that in Cyprus a similar script, in its origin
apparently non-Hellenic, was in use amongst the Greek-speaking inhabitants
it becomes in itself not unlikely that the same phenomenon may have
occurred in Crete and the Peloponnese where a similar script was in use in
much earlier times. The Greeks of Cyprus spoke a dialect approaching to
Arcadian — may they not have taken over with their language a form of
writing once in use in the more Western area from which they may be sup-
posed to have migrated ?

In view of these possibilities it is worth while examining the grounds of
the presumption that the Greek settlement in Crete goes back to Mycenaean
times. In the lines of the Odyssey referred to, which belong to one of the
earliest passages preserved to us, Crete is spoken of as the home of several
races speaking a variety of tongues, Achaeans and Dorians, Pelasgians, Eteo-
krfites and Kydonians : —

ILprjTf] Tt? yaV ea-Ti. jJiivui evl ocvotti ■jtovtoi,
KaXt] Kal -irUipa, 'jrepippvTO<;- iv S' dvOpmirot
TToXXot, a-jreipea-iOL, koI ivvrjicovTa iroX-qe';.
dWr] B' dW(ov yXcocra-a fiefiij/Mevrj- iv fiev 'k.^yaiol
iv 8' 'EreoK/aJjre? f^eyaXi^Tope';, hv he ^^vhcave<;
AaipLee^ re Tpi')(alKe'; Slot re HeXaayoo.

Here the indigenous Cretan elements are represented by the EteokrStes and
Kydonians; on the other hand it is evident that the Dorian settlement in
Crete at the time when this passage of the Odyssey was composed was of
at least sufficiently old standing for the Greek colonists to have assimilated
the story of Minos — set in a Dorian frame. In the next verses the poet
refers to Knosos, ' the great city,'

ev0a re MtViu?
ivvecopo<; /3aaiXeve A(o? fieydXov oapia-Trj'i,

where, as has been shown by Hoeck,*^ there is a distinct reference to the
specially Dorian *i' time division of nine years or ninety-nine months, — the
double Olympiad, — at the end of which 'long year' Minos according to the
tradition used to return to the cave of Zeus to receive fresh instruction and
repeat what he had learned before.*^ But Minos himself is not Dorian, and
the mythical genealogist is content with making the son of the Dorian
leader Teutamos, who came from Thessaly to Crete, adopt the children of the

■*' Kreta, i. p. 246 seqq. From the later usage ivveapos spater in allgemeinerer Bedeutung

with reference to the election of the Spartan angewandt seyn, mag selhst schon Homer sich

Ephors Hoeck infers that the Dorian kings re- dieses Ausdrucks nioht mit jener bestimmtcn

quired a fresh religious sanction for their sove- Riicksicht bedient haben ; so lag dooh der

reign ty every nine years, so that they could be tiefste grand der Bedeutsamkeit dieser Neun-

said to reign 'nine years.' He concludes: zahl in jener alten Jahresbestimmung.'

' Diess ist unstreitig der tiefere Sinn welcher '•''' Dodwell, de Cycl. p. 316 seqq.

dem homerischen Ulvi»s 4vv4wpos Paa-theve *'' Plato, vi. p. 138, Cf. Schol. ad Od,

unterliegt. Mag nun imnierhin das Wort xix. 178,

88 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [357]

Cretan Zeus — Minos, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon.*^' According to this version
we have a Dorian settlement in Crete from the Thessalian Doris, the later
Hestiaeotis, under a leader with a Pelasgian name, going back to prae-Minoan
times. It is to be observed that this Thessalian connexion fits in with the
account of the Odyssey which couples ' divine ' Pelasgians and Achaeans with
the Dorians in Crete, and with the fact that a son of Minos bears the name
Deukalion. According to the native Eteokretan tradition of the Praesians,
preserved by Herodotos,*^ the Greek settlement in Crete had begun before
the Trojan war, as a consequence of the depopulation of Crete caused by the
disastrous Western expedition that followed the death of Minos. The
Chronicle of Eusebios goes so far as to fix the year 1415 B.C. as the date
when the Dorian, Achaean and Pelasgian settlers who had set forth from
the country about the Thessalian Olympus landed in Crete.

It will be seen however that though both the native Eteocretan tradition
as preserved by the Praesians and the Greek records of the Thessalian
expedition assign a great antiquity to the first Dorian settlements in Crete,
they are in some respects at variance. The Praesian version speaks vaguely
of a first settlement of Greeks and other foreigners in Crete at the time
when a large part of it was left uninhabited owing to the wholesale Western
exodus that followed the death of Minos. It then refers to a second depopu-
lation of the island, consequent on the expedition against Troy, followed by a
second colonization, which might fit in with the Dorian occupation of the
Peloponnese. The Greek account on the other hand plants Dorians
Achaeans and Pelasgians in Crete two generations before Minos, wTro
becomes the adopted son of King Asterios the son of the Dorian leader.

^-^ Diod. iv. 60. In other MSS. of Diod8ros that the Praesians and old Kydouians were of

the name of the Dorian leader (son of DSros) the same stock, on the other hand it does not

appears as Tektamos. Andrfin, in Steph. Byz. necessarily mean that Minfiau Crete was then in

s.v. Aiipiov, gives the same version of the Dorian other hands. It is, rather, a patriotic way of

invasion from Thessaly in prae-Min8an times, accounting for the disappearance of the Eteo-

where the name appears, probably erroneously, kretan population from the later Dorian area

as Teksaphos. Teutamos, as Hoeck notes by the fact that their Western expedition had

(Kreta, ii. 1, 24, note 6), i-ecurs in Pelasgian left the land tenantless, for any one who chose

genealogies ; cf. Homer, II. ii. 843. to occupy it. The argument, in fact, runs as

" Her. vii. 1 71 Is Se tV KpV'?'' iprnt-aSe'iaav, follows. The greater part of Crete is occupied

Sis xiyovai Xlpaicnoi, iaoiKtCiadai dWovs re ap- by foreigners. These foreigners came in when

Bpiiirous Kol fniAio-To "EAAijras, Tpirri S( y€ve^ the original native occupants had gone else-

uera Mhav TtXivT^ffavTo. jeviaeou to. TpwiKo. . . . where on a "Western expedition whence they

It is reasonable to bring iprifi.u>Se7<rav into con- never returned. But we Praesians, as well as

nexion with the failure of the great Cretan ex- the Polichnites near Kydonia, represent the old

podition to avenge the death of Min6s and the inhabitants of the land. Therefore neither we

Cretan settlement of lapygia described in the nor they took part in the Western expedition,

preceding chapter. The direct reference by The survival of the indigenous element in the

Herodotus to Praesian, i.e. Eteokretan, tradition Kydonian district in the extreme West of Crete

in c. 171 gives a special importance to his supplies a presumption that the Doric coloni-

statement in c. 170 that the Praesians and in- zation of the islaud did not come by way of

habitants of Polichna, that is the old Kydo- Peloponnese. All traditions point to Central—

nians alone among the Cretans did not take ' Min6an '—Crete as the region where Hellenism

part in the Sicilian expedition. It seems on first took root,
the one hand to show a recognition of the fact

[358] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 89

But both traditions are at one in regarding the Dorian occupation of Crete as
the result of peaceful settlement rather than of a war of extermination. The
account of the ' adoption' of Minos by the son of the Dorian chief, after the
settlers had seen a second generation grow up on Cretan soil, certainly points
to a gradual and bloodless amalgamation of the Hellenic and indigenous

elements.

It has been necessary to recall these traditions of the great antiquity of
the first Dorian settlement in Crete, since the prevailing tendency is to regard
that settlement as a secondary result of the Dorian occupation of the Pelo-
ponnese. That the conquest of the Peloponnese may have brought with it a
new flow of Dorian migration to Crete is likely enough. The earlier settle-
ments may well leave room for the later attributed to PoUis and Delphos of
Amyklae, or for that of Althaemengs from Megara or Argos. The native
tradition as represented by the Praesians distinctly points to a fresh Hellenic
settlement in the period that succeeded the Trojan war. But to regard the
traditions of the early Dorian settlement from Thessaly as given by Andron
and Strabo as simply fabricated from an erroneous interpretation of the
Homeric passage seems quite unwarrantable. The Homeric collocation of
Dorians Achaeans and Pelasgians points itself to Thessaly ; the name of
Deukalion, applied already in the Iliad to a son of Minos, points in the same
direction, and a mere comparison of many of the local names of Crete with
Thessalian forms is sufficient to prove an early connexion with that region.^*

Both tradition, then, and nomenclature favour the view that Greeks and

' ' Pelasgians ' from Thessaly may have settled in Crete at a date far anterior

' to that of the Dorian conquest of Peloponngsos, and it follows that among

those who used the curious Cretan script of Mycenaean and earlier times

there may well have been men of Hellenic speech.

The archaeological evidence points the same way. Although on the
present occasion it is impossible to go into the evidence in detail I may say
that my own researches into the prehistoric antiquities of Crete have brought
home to me the impression of their great homogeneity. From Kissamos
and Kydonia in the extreme West to Praesos and Itanos in the extreme East
the same characteristic forms are perpetually recurring. The same type of
Mycenaean culture, with certain nuances of its own, is common to the whole
island. The same rude terracotta images occur throughout, and, as far as our
evidence reaches, the funereal rite of enclosing the bones of the dead in
painted hut-urns enclosed in tholoi, at times excavated out of the rock, was
as widely diffused. Diversity of race may have eventually led to some local
differentiation. It looks as if the later class of seal-stones with pictographic

'*'' E.g. i«W«sa, the ancient name for Gortyna be compared with Trilska. There was also a

according to Steph. Byz. [s.v.), Oorlyn itself Cretan Maqnasia, according to some accounts

comparing with Gyrtdn in Perrhaehia (Bechtel, founded by Magnates from Thessaly (Parthen.

cited by Busolt, Gr. Gescli. V; 330, note) ; Erot. c. 5). These parallels extend to Mace-

Fhaestos, Phalanna (cf. too Phalasarna), and donia ; compare for instance Olous and Olyn-

BoeM are also found both in Crete and Thessaly. thos, Hierapytna and Pydna and the river-

Trilta, an old name for KnosOs, may possibly names Axos and Axios.

90 FEOM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [359]

symbols were the special product of the surviving representatives of the
aboriginal race in the East of the island, while on the Southern slopes of Ida, —
to judge by the relics found in Kamares grotto,— pottery of archaic fabric
continued to be produced in early Mycenaean times. Eegarding them
as a whole however, a great family likeness is perceptible in Cretan remains of
this early period ; and, together with the general homogeneity, a remarkable
continuity is observable. From about 900 B.C. onwards, to judge from the
bronzes of the cave of Zeus, there was a strong Assyrianizing influence, due
no doubt to Phoenician contact ; but the archaeological break which at
Mycenae itself and in the Greek mainland generally is perceptible in the
centuries immediately preceding the days of the miscalled ' Archaic ' Greek
art or, as we should now call it, the Greek art of the ' Early Renaissance,' is in
Crete conspicuous by its absence. We have here what may be called late
Mycenaean crossed by Oriental influences but still essentially continuous, a
phenomenon which repeats itself in an almost identical aspect at Argos and in
the Argive relics found at Kameiros. The break caused on the Greek mainland
by the intrusion of a geometrical style of art fitting on to that of the
Danubian valley and the Hallstatt culture of Central Europe is reasonably
connected with a tide of invasion from the North, of which the Dorian
invasion of the Pelopounese represents the southernmost wave. But the
Dorian invaders who are supposed to have been hurried on to Crete by the
same migrating impulse — where have they left their mark on Cretan antiqui-
ties ? Certain geometrical elements came in no doubt, fibulae are found
identical with those of the Dipylon or the Boeotian cemeteries, but the
evolution of Cretan art is still in the main continuous. That there was at
this period a fresh Dorian colonization of parts of Crete is probable : but the
new comers were merged in the body of Dorian inhabitants already long settled
in the island, and received from them the artistic traditions that they had
themselves handed down from Mycenaean times. And in architecture at
least, let it be remembered, it was the Dorian element that was to represent
the true Mycenaean tradition.

Another piece of archaeological evidence completely disposes of any
difficulty that might be felt as to a colonization of Crete from such a com-
paratively distant quarter as Thessaly in Mycenaean times. Mycenaean
culture was early planted in the Thessalian coastlands, as appears from the
tombs of that period discovered on the headland opposite Volo, the ancient
lolkos.*^ But, among the vases found in these Thessalian tombs, is a peculiar
class of one-handled pots displaying water-plants with arrowlike or
cordiform leaves and waved lines below, apparently indicative of water. A
vase- of the same form but with a different ornamentation was found in
Akropolis Grave No. III. at Mycenae,*^ but in the Maket tomb at Kahun, now
shown by Mr. Petrie to belong to Thothmes III.'s time,^^ there was deposited a

45 gge Wolters, Mijlcenische Vasen aus dem occurs on a vase from Grave I. and another

nordlichen Griechenlmd, Athen. Mitili. xiv. from Grave YL, as well as on a glass paste

(1889) p. 262 seq(i. ornament from Grave III.

A leaf ornament of the same character " See above, p. 318.

[360] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 91

pot not only of the same shape as the Thessalian examples but with an
identical design. lolkos and the Nile Valley were thus either in direct
commercial connexion, or at any rate supplied from the same source, as early as
the fifteenth century B.C., and it cannot be doubted that Crete, lying between
the two, formed an important link in the chain. The vegetable motive
described is indeed a characteristic feature on Cretan gems of the Mycenaean
period *^ and will doubtless be eventually found to have played an important
part in Cretan ceramics. The archaeological evidence makes it well-nigh
certain that there was a direct intercourse between Crete and the famous
Thessalian port at the period when, according to tradition, the first Dorian
colonists along with Achaeans and Pelasgians found their way to the island
from that veiy quarter.

There are therefore good grounds for supposing that the Greek colonization
in Crete goes back well into the period during which the primitive forms of
script with which we are dealing were in general use in the island. As a
matter of fact the later epigraphic monuments of more than one of the
Dorian cities of Crete actually exhibit what appear to be survivals of some
of the characters belonging to the prae-Phoenician script with which we are
now dealing. Professor Halbherr has made to me the valuable suggestion
that some of the characters brought to light by the present investigation had
influenced the forms of certain letters that occur in the most archaic Greek
inscriptions found in the island, while in other cases they seem actually to
have survived as marks of division. Thus at Lyttos there is seen a form of O
consisting of two concentric circles, with or without a central dot,*^ identical
with the symbol No. 2d of the pictographic series or 28 of the linear. At
Eleutherna ^^ and Oaxos ^^ there is found a form of Vau ^ which suggests
a differentiation from the Phoenician Vau under the influence of the linear
character No. 20 S. On the other hand the double axe symbol X occurs
both at Gortyna ^^ and Lyttos ^^ as a mark of division.^*

But in considering the possibility that this early script may have been
made use of by men of Greek speech we cannot restrict our survey to Crete
alone. The indications that we possess, at any rate in the case of the linear
characters, point to a much wider diffusion, Mycenaean in its most compre-
hensive sense. The early script that we find in Crete extends, as we have
seen, to the Peloponnese, but quite apart from this phenomenon there is
abundant evidence to show that the Mycenaean culture in the two areas,
at least in its earlier stages, was singularly uniform in aspect. On this occa-
sion it is impossible to enter into details, but it may be sufficient to say that
the engraved Mycenaean gems found in Crete show a remarkable correspond-
ence with those from Mycenae itself, the Vaphio tomb and other Peloponne-

■>» See above, p. 323. is used to separate two very different clauses.
« Comparetti, Leggi di Gortyna, Ji-c, p. 201. "3 Qp. dt. p. 434, Inscr. No. 203, 1. 7. In

50 Op. cit. p. 418, Inscr. 194, 1. 6. this case the sign is written horizontally in-

=1 Op. cit. p. 402, Inscr. 187, 1. 3. stead of vertically.

»2 Op. cit. p. 117, col. ix. 1. 43. In the note ■'* At Corinth the same sign is used for E,

it is spoken of as 'un segno insignificante.' It Pamphylia for H.

&^ FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [361]

sian sites. The art of the Vaphio gold vases finds itself an absolute counter-
part on a fragment of a stone vessel presenting similar reliefs obtained by
me on the site of Knosos. The cult-scenes on the gold rings find their
nearest pendant on a Cretan example. A bronze figure of the same early
type as that found at Tiryns, and another from Mycenae, has lately been dis-
covered in a cave near Sybrita. In short, whichever way we look, we see
Mycenaean art in Crete as it now begins to emerge before us displaying the
same typical form that it bears in Peloponnesos. And few will be found to
doubt that, whatever may have been the nationality of the dominant race in
whose hands both in Crete and Peloponnesos this art first took its character-
istic shape, in Peloponnesos at any rate it was taken over by Greek-speaking
tribes. The close relation with Crete into which the royal house of Mycenae
is brought in the Iliad and in Greek tradition generally ^^ becomes in this
connexion of special interest. Atreus himself or his son Pleisthenes marries
Aerope the granddaughter of Minos, who in turn becomes the mother of
Agamemnon and Menelaos. Idomeneus, the uncle of these, is the guest of
the Argive princes — notably of Menelaos — and connected with them in the
affairs of peace as well as war.^^ According to local sagas Agamemnon
himself founded the Cretan Mykgnae ^^ and other cities of the island. There
are besides this a considerable number of local names common to Crete and
the Peloponnese,^* but some at least of these may be due to the later wave of
Dorian migration from Laconia and the Argolid.

The early connexion between Crete and other parts of the Greek
mainland, notably with Attica and Boeotia, is borne out by the same evidence
of tradition and nomenclature. In the case of Boeotia indeed it is tempting
to see in the peculiar form of the E a trace of the influence of the linear
or pictographic symbol resembling a four-barred gate.

Incomplete then as our evidence still is, it tends to show that the use
of early script with which we are dealing may have been shared both on
the mainland and in Crete itself by men of Greek speech. The data at
our disposal seem to warrant the conclusion that the diffusion of this early
system of writing was in fact conterminous with that of the Mycenaean form
of culture. The pictographic class of seal-stones seems to have been princi-
pally at home in Crete. But the linear script had evidently a very wide
range. In Crete itself the linear characters occur on a greater variety of
materials than the more pictorial forms. In the Peloponnese they are found
not only at Mycenae itself but at Nauplia, they reappear at Menidi and at
Siphnos, and in Egypt they are found on the early potsherds of Kahun
and Gurob. On the early whorls of Hissarlik we already see traces of
similar signs.^^^ In Cyprus we find a closely allied system, which had also
diffused itself along the coastlands of Asia Minor, surviving into classical
times. It further appears that very similar signs had invaded the coast of

=5 See especially Hoeck, KreLa, ii. p. 397, ="* E.g. Amykla, Thcrapnae, Pharae, Boiac,

Tegea, Arkades, LampS (or Lappa). Cf. Btisolt,
5«' II. iv. 256 seqq., and cf. II. iii. 230 eeqg. Gr. GescMchte, 2n(l ed. p. 329 seqq.

67 y-ell, Paterc. i. 1. '"" S*y<=^ '° ^^'^°-^' P- ^^^ *'^S?-

[362] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SOPJPT 93

Canaan. There can be no doubt that many of the marks referred to above
as found on the potsherds of Tell-el-Hesy, which has been identified with the
ancient Lachish, belong to the same system as the linear characters of the
Aeo-ean and Egyptian deposits. May we suppose that both in this case and at
Kahun and Gurob these marks were originally derived from a Cretan or
Aegean source ? The appearance in the later strata at Tell-el-Hesy of Aegean
painted pottery, including a fragment representing a bird which resembles
one from the sixth Akropolis tomb at Mycenae, certainly points to an
influence from this side.

The evidence as a whole reveals a very direct relation between the
linear forms and the Mycenaean form of culture in its most typical shape.
On the Goulas cup, the Knosos amethyst, the prehistoric walls of the same
site, the vase-handles of Mycenae itself, it appears on objects of the character-
istically Mycenaean class. In short there seems every reason to believe that
this quasi-alphabetic group of signs represents the typical form of Mycenaean
script.

The pictographic series on the other hand may be regarded as
more local in distribution and as the special property of the indigenous
Cretan stock, who appear to have continued to use this less developed form
of picture-writing at a time when their neighbours had generally adopted
what may be a more simplified form of script. To this pictographic or
hieroglyphic group I would provisionally give the name of ' Eteocretan.'
That it lived on in Crete into Mycenaean times is proved by a variety of
evidence and that it belonged to a people largely under Mycenaean influence
is also clear enough. But it does not seem to have been so widely current
amongst the Aegean peoples of the Mycenaean age as the linear system.

In comparing the two groups the first question that naturally suggests
itself is : How far does the pictographic or ' Eteocretan ' series represent the
parent stock out of which the linear or ' Mycenaean ' system proper may be
supposed to have been evolved ?

That there is a connexion between the two systems is certain. Not only
do both groups of characters occur on seal-stones of the same typical form,
but in some cases the linear forms are seen accompanied by signs belonging to
the hieroglyphic class. On the four-sided stone Fig. 86, two facets of
which are occupied by purely ornamental designs, we find the two remaining
sides occupied respectively by a figure of a man, which may be taken to have
an ideographic signification, and a group of three linear signs. On the
triangular seal-stone Fig. 29 we see another group of three linear characters
preceded by a sign which represents a simplification of the eye-symbol that
recurs on several stones of the purely hieroglyphic series, and on the
remaining side two other pictographic characters. On Fig. 30 two sides are
filled with linear characters, while the third exhibits what is possibly a rude
version of the hippocamp symbol. Moreover on the stone vase-handle
from Mycenae we see the quasi-alphabetic forms accompanied by a more
pictorial representation which closely resembles an early form of the ' broad
arrow ' symbol as seen on some of the Cretan stones. It is a noteworthy fact

94 FKOM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [363]

that a similar mixed usage of pictographs and alphabetic forms occurs on
early Sabaean inscriptions. Thus on two Sabaoan gravestones a pair of eyes
appear above the inscription.^^ In another case a bull's head, a pictographic
rendering of the personal name Taur, appears at the beginning of the
inscription.^*' In Greek archaeology this combined usage of letters and
symbol is curiously illustrated by the signatures of magistrates and officials,
which are often reduplicated in the same way.^^

This mixed usage is a clear proof of the overlapping of the two classes
of script with which we are now dealing. Abundant evidence indeed has
been already accumulated that at any rate in the Eastern part of Crete the
pictographic signs continued to be used by a people in other respects under
the full influence of Mycenaean culture.

Again several of the signs that take their place in the pictographic
series are themselves practically linear. Among these may be mentioned
the concentric circles (No. 2d, e), the loop (No. 80), the S and X-shaped forms,
the gate or shutter and some forms of the ' broad arrow.'

This tendency to linearization perceptible in the hieroglyphic series might
by itself suggest the possibility that we had here the prototypes of quasi-
alphabetic forms. I had even, as already observed, set to work to simplify
and reduce to linear shape the pictographic symbols that occurred on the
first seal-stones that came under my notice before I was yet acquainted with
the linear class. More limited as was then my material the results thus
experimentally arrived at led me to the conclusion that the Cretan hieroglyphs
might eventually prove to supply the origin of a system of script closely
approaching the syllabaries used in Cyprus and parts of Anatolia at a later
date.

It was therefore the more satisfactory to find this a priori supposition
confirmed by the subsequent discovery in Crete itself of an independent linear
system of writing containing in several cases forms corresponding to the
simplified versions of the hieroglyphs that I had already worked out.

Of course it is not to be expected that all or even a large proportion of
types represented in any given pictographic or hieroglyphic system should
recur in a series of alphabetic or syllabic characters derived from it. The
pictographic method of writing necessarily involves the use of a very large
number of signs, while on the other hand an alphabet or syllabary can only
be arrived at by a rigorous system of limitation and selection. Out of the
seventy odd ' hieroglyphic ' signs from the Cretan stones — a number which
will no doubt be largely increased by future discoveries — it would not be
reasonable to expect more than a limited set of correspondences with the
linear forms, especially when it is borne in mind that of this linear system
too we have as yet probably little more than a fragment before us.

The correspondences that do occur between the two systems are never-
theless of so striking a kind as to warrant us in believing that there is a real

5" Glaser, MiUheihmgen uber cinige cuts ''" Op. cit. p. 325.

oneiner Sammlung stammenda SabUischc In- " See above, p. 273.

schriften, Sc, pp. 301 and 326.

[364] PRIMITIVE PlCTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT. 95

relationship. In instituting the comparisons below the pictographic signs
referred to have been taken from the somewhat advanced types represented
on the Mycenaean seal-stones of Eastern Crete. But inasmuch as the linear
forms overlap this conventionalized pictorial class and go back themselves, as
already shown, to a very early date, it would not be literally true to say that
they are derived from pictographs in the stage represented by these ' Eteo-
cretan ' seals. The actual prototypes of the linear forms would probably have
been pictographs of a ruder ' graffito ' and almost linear type themselves, such
as we find on some of the most archaic Cretan stones and on the whorls of
the earliest settlements at Hissarlik. But, these allowances being made, the
later pictorial series of which alone we have a fairly copious record seems in
certain cases to supply a probable clue to the origin of the linear signs.

In instituting the comparisons between the pictographic and linear signs
as sketched in the annexed diagram (Table III.) it has been found useful to
introduce a certain number of Cypriote forms as supplementing the Aegean
types at present known to us. But, in addition to this, the parallels presented
by the linearized pictographs to Semitic letter-forms are in several cases so
striking that I have not hesitated to include these in the table of comparisons.
There have been also added certain Greek letters either of uncertain origin,
like the ^, or presenting forms like the Boeotian four-barred E or the Cretan
with a concentric circle,^'^ which apparently go back to prototypes earlier
than any existing Semitic models. In the case of Zayin I have even had
recourse to the Sabaean form as very probably in this case representing the
completer shape of the letter. These Semitic comparisons recall certain
parallels presented by some of the linear Aegean signs included in Table I.
Nos. 10, 24, and 25 of the series there represented much resemble forms
of Gimel and Lamed, while No. 14 suggests a reduplicated Yod.

The annexed table of comparisons both in its general bearing on the origin
of Aegean and possibly Cypriote letters from pictographic originals and irl
the special parallels that it supplies to Semitic forms must certainly be taken
to throw a suggestive light on the vexed question of the origin of the Phoe-
nician alphabet. If it once can be shown that in Crete and the Aegean
coastlands a primiti^'e system of picture-writing gave birth to a linear
syllabary akin to that of Cyprus, the possibility that the Phoenician forms
may after all have had a non-Egyptian origin becomes distinctly greater. If
in this Aegean region an ox's head or a fence or tree assumed linear forms
practically identical with those that bear the names of the same or similar
objects in the Phoenician series, what good reason is there for supposing that
the same phenomenon may not have repeated itself in other parts of the
same East Mediterranean basin ?

Some of the parallels with Semitic names and forms, as will be seen
from the following examples, are altogether startling.

On the remarkable perforated disk (Fig. 11) from the Phaestos deposit a
rude and elongated figure of a horned animal — apparently a bull or ox —

«2 See p. 360.

ox AND OXES HEAD FOLLOWED

BY THE SAME SYMBOL ON OPPO-

_SlTE SIDES OF THE PH/tSTOS WHORL.

SEA\.
= POST.

TREE ON TREE
AWCEII«K SVW80L
CE«

T^BLE.Ill.

PICTOCRAiPHS AND LINEAR SYMBOLS
COMPARED.

CYPR - CYPRIOTE ARCH. CK = AtlClfAIC
CREEK. SE/v\s 5"f/M/7-/C.

-- OX

1 I CYPIl.

VASE HANDuq /V/-
MYCENS

[366] PEIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 97

appears in conjunction with a linear symbol Q/. On the other side of the same
stone the head of the same animal like an y upside down is followed by the
same symbol p^. The A is thus brought into direct connexion with the bull or
ox. On a seal-stone again (Fig. 26a) we find a pictorial representation of an
ox's head accompanied by other symbols, while on the pendant from Arbi
(Fig. 16) occurs what seems to be a linear form of the same, standing by
itself It cannot be doubted that the A symbol of the Cretan series is derived
from an ox's head. If we turn to Phoenicia we find the same symbol with a
record of its pictographic original in its name ^;e/=an ox. According to De
Eouge's theory however, which still holds the field, we are asked to believe
that in Phoenicia the symbol, notwithstanding its name, was derived from
the hieratic representation of an eagle.

In Crete we see the double axe linearized into a symbol 2L, like a closed
X or two crossed Z's. From the occurrence of this symbol as equivalent to
Z on the Sabaean inscriptions there seem to be good reasons for believing
that the original Semitic form of Zayin was of this shape, and Zayin is
generally translated ' weapons,' which would find its natural explanation in
the pictograph of the double axe. But the received derivation is from the
hieratic sketch of a flying duck. The Cretan pictograph for a tree is
reduced to the same form as the Phoenician Same7ch = a. post, the origin of
which is by De Eouge's theory traced to the hieratic degradation of an
Egyptian chair-back. The two Cretan pictographs which may stand for a gate,
fence, or shutter and the accompanying linear forms are practically identical
with the Semitic Cheth = ' a fence ' and He,^^ supposed to mean a window.^*
Here again form and name correspond in both cases, but we are asked to
believe that the Phoenician forms are descended respectively from a sieve and
a maeander. The eye is one of the commonest of the Cretan pictographs,
and the Phoenician Ain, signifying ' an eye,' for which even De Kongo's
ingenuity failed to discover an Egyptian prototype, is the natural linearization
of a similar form.

The Cypriote system, as we have seen, seems to fit on to the Cretan and
' Aegean.' But if we examine the Cypriote syllabary we are struck in the
same way with the close parallelism of many of the forms with those of the
Phoenician alphabet. These resemblances have been accounted for by a
supposed process of assimilation due to the preponderating influence of the
Semitic forms. But now that it is becoming clear that the Cypriote syllabary
represents a branch of a very much older system, which appears in Crete, the
Peloponnese and elsewhere long before we have any record of Phoenician
writing, the ground is cut away from any such theory.

The matter seems at first sight to be complicated by the fact that the
Cypriote characters that bear the greatest resemblance to Phoenician forms
have in all cases a different phonetic value. The sign which answers to He
in the Semitic series reappears in Cypriote as equivalent to ri. In the
same way Tau becomes lo, Gimel, Jco, and Yod, ni.

But these phonetic divergences can be accounted for by a very simple

*3 The Boeotian E with four bai's, introduced He resembling the pictograph No. 4.
in the Plate, rather points to an older form of ^* See Isaac Taylor, The Alphabet, p. 171.

98 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [367]

supposition— which may indeed be now regarded as something more than a
mere theoretic possibility. Supposing that throughout a considerable part
of the East Mediterranean basin a pictographic system of communication
had grown up analogous in its earliest stage to the picture-writing in use
among the North American Indians, such pictorial signs would have had, as
they still have amongst savage races at the present day, a currency beyond
the limit of individual languages. The signs would in fact have been ideo-
graphic and independent of language. But as the system became more
conventionalized and developed and finally gave birth to a kind of linear
shorthand of the original picture-writing, the figures which had stood for
individual objects and ideas would in due course acquire a shortened
phonetic value representing syllables and letters. And, as a necessary con-
sequence of this process, these signs, though they may have been derived from
what was originally a widely current pictorial stock, would now take the
phonetic values imposed by the language spoken by individual tribes. The
old picture of an ox or an ox's head would have been generally intelligible.
But reduced to the linear stage the ox's head might be an A in one country
and a B in another.

It looks as if some process of this kind had actually occurred on the
coasts and islands of the Aegean and the further Mediterranean shores. The
Cretan pictographs give us a good warrant for believing — what even without
such evidence common sense would lead us to expect — that a primitive
system of picture-writing had existed in the Aegean lands at a very remote
period. The antiquity of these figures is indeed in some cases curiously
brought out by the fact already pointed out, that they actually exhibit the
actions of a primitive gesture-language. Furthermore we see certain
ideographic forms no doubt once widely intelligible on the coasts and
islands of the Eastern Mediterranean reduced to linear signs which find
close parallels in Cyprus and Phoenicia. Finally, some of the names of the
Phoenician letters lead us back to the same pictographic originals which in
Crete we find actually existing.

To the Phoenicians belongs the credit of having finally perfected this
system and reduced it to a purely alphabetic shape. Their acquaintance
with the various forms of Egyptian writing no doubt assisted them in this
final development. Thus it happened that it was from a Semitic source and
under a Semitic guise that the Greeks received their alphabet in later days.
But the evidence now accumulated from Cretan soil seems at least to
warrant the suspicion that the earlier elements out of which the Phoenician
system was finally evolved were largely shared by the primitive inhabitants
of Hellas itself. So far indeed as the evidence at our disposal goes, the
original centre of this system of writing should be sought nearer Crete than
Southern Syria. The natural script of the Semites was the cuneiform,
derived from their ancient contact with Chaldaea, and which, as we know
from the Tell-el-Amarna tablets and other sources, was still the dominant
script of Syria and Palestine at a time when ' Minoan ' Crete and Mycenaean
Greece had, as we have seen, already evolved independent systems of writing
both pictographic and linear.

H 2

[368] PHIMITIVE PIOTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 99

In view of these facts it is at least worth while to weigh the possibility
that the rudiments of the Phoenician writing may after all have come in part at
least from the Aegean side. The more the relics of Mycenaean culture
are revealed to us the more we see how far ahead of their neighbours
on the Canaanite coasts the Aegean population then was in arts and
civilization. The spread of their commerce led them to seek planta-
tions in the Nile Valley and the Mediterranean outlets of the Arabian
and Red Sea trade. The position was the reverse of that which meets
our eye at a later date. It was not Sidon that was then planting
mercantile settlements on the coasts and islands of Greece. Those were the
days when Philistine Askalon weighed heavily on Sidon herself ;^^ when the
Viking swarms from the Aegean isles and the neighbouring coastlands
were a thorn in the side of the Egypt of Thothmes III.^^ and his successors.
But the relics of Aegean civilization now brought to light at Tell-el-Amarna
and the Fayoum, like those found at Lachish, show that there was another
besides the purely piratical side to the expeditions of these maritime races.
Barbaric invasion and migration followed as usu.al the routes of more peaceful
commerce, and, as in the case of the Northmen, the Viking period of the
Aegean peoples was succeeded, at least as early as the twelfth century B.C.,
by a period of fixed settlement of which the name of Palestine, the land of
the Philistines, is the abiding historic landmark.

In considering the possible influence of the early Aegean script on the
Semitic races, the colonization of the Southern coasts of Canaan by the
Philistines and their kin is of primary importance. The commercial instinct
of the invaders is well brought out by the occupation of Gaza, lying on the
trunk-line of commerce between Syria and the Nile Valley and forming at
the same time the Mediterranean goal of the South Arabian trade-route.^'
The Southern district in which Gaza lay seems to have been the special
possession of the Chore thites,^^ who at times give their name to the whole
Philistine confederation — a name which in the Septuagint version of Ezekiel ^^
and Zephaniah ''" is translated by Kp^re?. Gaza itself bore the title of
Minoa '^ and according to Stephanus was the legendary foundation of Minos
and his brothers. Its chief god Marnas was identified with Zeus Kretagenes.'^
The central district of Philistia seems to have been occupied by the tribe
from whose name that of the Philistines was itself in all probability derived,
the Pulasati '^ ' from the middle of the sea ' who played such a prominent

^^ CI. Justin xviii. 3. p. 181 sqq. As ' the natural outpost across the

*' On a stele at Karnak Thothmes III. is desert from Egypt' it played the same part

made to show his majesty to the DanSnas of the that Damascus did with reference to Assyria.

Isles 'as a lion that sleeps upon the carcases.' ^* I. Sam. xxx. 14.

This implies that the Dan6nas were already ^' C. xxv. 16.

molesting the coasts of Egypt. The Maket '"' C. ii. 5.

tomb (see above, p. 318) and other archaeo- ''^ Steph. Byz. s.v. Mii'iuo.

logical sources giye evidence of more peaceful " gteph. Byz. s.v. TdCa ; cf. Hoeck, Kreta,

contact between Egypt and the Aegean peoples ii. 369. The name Marnas was erroneously

in the early reigns of the Eighteenth Dynasty. brought into connexion with the Cretan Martis
"^ On the importance of Gaza in the ancient = Maiden, which appears in Britomartis.

geography of Palestine see especially G. A. '^ See "W. Max Miiller, Asien und Etiropa

Smith, Ilislurical Geography of the Holy Land, nach aUiic/yptischcn Denhnalern, 1893, p. 389.

100 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONJSTESE. [3G9]

part in the invasions of Egypt under Eamses III. and Merenptah, and whose
name when brought into connexion with that of the Cretans curiously recalls
the Bioi UeXaa-joiJ'^ so early settled in the island side by side with 'Ereo-

Kprjre'i, Achaians — probably the Akayvas of the same Egyptian monuments

and Dorians. Another member of this group of Aegean and West Anatolian
peoples whose maritime enterprise was now a terror to Egypt and its border-
lands was the Takkara, — ex hypothesi Teucri, the eponymus of whose race
whether he appears at Salamis or Troy is doubly connected with Crete.

These people are brought into close connexion with the Pulasati and
Danonas (presumably Danai) in the expeditions against Egypt, and from an
interesting notice in the Golenischeff Papyrus " it appears that Dore or Dor
on the coast of Canaan was already by about 1100 B.C. known as a city of
the Takkaras. In Greek legend this city was founded by ' Doros the son of
Poseidon ' '"^ and its inhabitants were known as Aojptet?." The names are
certainly suggestive, and in days when lonians and probably Achaians were
already mentioned in Egyptian records a trace of a Dorian element on these
shores hardly need surprise us. That among the various elements from the
Aegean coastlands who took part in the Philistine Confederation men of Greek
stock may already have found a place as early as the twelfth or eleventh
century B.C. can no longer at least be regarded as an improbable hypothesis.
It is perhaps not without some actual warrant in fact that in the Septuagint
version of Isaiah ^* the Philistines themselves are translated by "EWrjve'i.

Hebrew tradition is unanimous in bringing the Philistines from the
' Isle of Kaphtor.' ' Island ' here may simply mean distant coasts such as those
of the Aegean in general, but the alternative form of Cherethim applied to
the same people certainly indicates that, in so far as it stands for an island,
Kaphtor should be applied to Crete rather than Cyprus. This consideration
lends an additional interest to the suggestion that Kaphtor may be connected
with Kefto, whence came the people who of all those represented on Egyptian
monuments most clearly show Mycenaean characteristics. Their costume,
their peaked shoes and leggings, the dressing of the hair, the characteristic
vessels they are represented as bearing to Thothmes III., show the closest
parallels with Mycenaean forms. This parallelism, as shown by the Pelo-
ponnesian remains such as the wall-paintings of Mycenae, the shape and
ornament of the gold cups and vases and notably the figures on the Vaphio
cups, has already been pointed out.'^ The identification of the Kefti with the

''^ Chabas, who transliterates ' Pulasati ' view that they are Pelasgians. But he accepts

as 'Pelestas,' had already identified them the identification of the Shardin, Turshas,

with the Pelasgians in his AntiquiU Ms- Akayvas, and Jevanas, with Sardinians, Tyrseni,

torique. So too Eenan (Eistoire giniraU Achaians, and lonians.

des Ungues simUiques, P, p. 53) : ' Une hy- '''' W. Max Miiller, Asien und Europa nach

pothese trfes vraisemblable, adoptee par les meil- altiigyptischen Denkmdlern, p. 388.

leurs exegfetes et ethnographes, fait venir les '* Steph. Byz. s.v. A&pos.

Philistins de Crfete. Le nom seul de Plishti... " Steph. Byz. I.e. navtravlas 5e iv tJ tvs

rappelle celui des Pelasges.' This view also narpiSos airov Kriffd Aapi(?s airoiis Ka\e7

commends itself to Maspero (Hist. Anc. des '* C. ix. 12.

peuples d'Orient, p. 312). W. Max Miiller ''" This comparison, first instituted by Puch-

{op. cit. p. 368), while admitting the possibility stein, has been further brought out by Stein-

that the Pulasati are Philistines, rejects the A.oxS, AreMologischerAnzeiger,\?,'i2,^.l2seqq

[370] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 101

Phoenicians has been further shown to rest on a confusion of Ptolemaic
times.^" The ruddy hue of the Kefti chiefs in the Theban paintings,— which
seems to be the Egyptian way of rendering the rosy European cheeks,^i— as
well as their dress and facial type are clearly non-Semitic.

Isolated resemblances such as those presented by the bronze figure from
Latakia, the Syrian Laodicea, now in the Louvre,^^ or by the details of some
Hittite or early Cilician reliefs cannot weigh against the much greater
conformity with Mycenaean types, and, to the Peloponnesian examples already
cited, my own researches now enable me to add a striking array of Cretan
parallels. Here it may be sufficient to say that throughout Eastern and
Central Crete the commonest types of Mycenaean gems show as their princi-
pal designs a series of vessels evidently representing originals in the precious
metals, some with beaked spouts, some with S-shaped double handles and
slender bases which reproduce several of the most characteristic types of the
vessels offered by the Kefti chiefs to Thothmes III. on the Theban tombs.
The men of the Vaphio cups, who present such a striking resemblance to
the Kefti tributaries as seen in the walls of the Rekhmara tomb, recur with
the same flowing locks on a fragment of a stone vessel from Knosos. It is
true that, if on the one hand the Kefto folk are brought into connexion with
the people ' of the islands of the sea,' ^ on the other hand they are found in
the company of Hittites and of men of Kadesh and Tunep (DaphnS) and
the Upper Rutenu of Inner Palestine. But if, as there is good reason for
believing, the carrying trade of the East Mediterranean was at this time
largely in Mycenaean hands, these associations and perhaps the tribute of
silver and copper — it may be from Cilicia and Cyprus — that the Kefti bore
in addition to their artistic vases would be accounted for without difficulty.
The matter will appear even simpler if we may accept the view that the
name of Kefto is to be identified with that of the Caphtor ^^ whose inhabi-
tants included both the Aegean islands and the coast of Canaan in their

^ In the Canopus Decree 'Kefti' is trans- numerous engraved stones found there, like

lated ^oivixri, which led Ebers and other Egypt- others recently brought back by Mr. D. G.

ologists to accept the identification of the Kefti Hogarth from Ain-Tab in Comraagene, are

with Phoenicians. W. Max Miiller however of Hittite and non-Mycenaean character.

{Asien und Europa nach altUgyptischen Benk- ^^ Op. cit. p. 351.

mahrn, p. 337) has shown how valueless the ^^ Longperier, Mus^e Napoleon, 21 ; Perrot et

Ptolemaic tradition was in such matters. Chipiez, Phinicie, dhc, 429, 430.

From the place in which the name appears — ^^ In the Rekhmara inscription,

after Naharin and Heta— in early Egyptian ^^ Tomb of Men-Kheper-ra-seneb, Mission

lists, he himself concludes that it represents archMogique frangaise au Cairc, 5, 11, and cf.

Cilicia. Steindorff, who also {op. cit. p. 15) W. Max Miiller, op. cit. p. 347, and Steindorff,

rejects the identification jwith Phoenicia, is loc. cit.

led to seek the Kefti in the Gulf of Issos ^^ Ebers' suggestion that Caphtor = ' Kaft-

or Cyprus. But, as noticed above, the %cre ' or Great Keft8 (which he assumed on the

archaeological evidence does not, favour either strength of the Canopus decree to be Phoenicia)

CUicia or Cyprus. Cyprus, as we know, was is rejected by "W. Max Miiller {op. cit. p. 390),

touched by Mycenaean culture in comparatively who however expresses the opinion that the

late times, but it was never, certainly, a centre name KeftS has nevertheless a real connexion

of its propagation. The early Mycenaean spiral with Caphtor : ' 1st der Name Keft6 (the or-

work, such as is seen on the Kefti vases, is foreign thography approved by him, p. 337) auszu-

to Cypriote remains. On the Cicilian mainland sprechen so ist allerdings der Anklang mehr als

Mycenaean traces altogether fail us. The zufallig.'

102 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [371]

field of activity. The later confusion of their land with Phoenicia in the
Canopus Decree is in this connexion not without its significance.

In considering the question of possible Philistine influence on the origin
of the Semitic script it must always be borne in mind that the actual
colonization of Palestine is only a comparatively late episode in a connexion
which goes back to far earlier times. The parallels supplied by the more
primitive class of Cretan seal-stones abundantly show that there was a
lively intercourse between the Aegean island and the Easternmost Mediter-
ranean coast as early as the third millennium before our era. Aegean enter-
prise, according to Mr. Petrie's researches, penetrated at an equally early date
into Egypt, and of this again we have now the counter-proof in the Twelfth
Dynasty Egyptian relics found in Cretan interments. Whether or not a
' proto-Semitic ' element may have existed in Crete itself and other parts of
the Aegean world from very early times is a question beyond our present
scope. Should this prove to have been the case it might simplify some
problems that are at present enigmatic. There certainly seems to be a deep-
lying community of early tradition between Crete and the Semitic world
older than can be accounted for by Phoenician agencies of post-Mycenaean
times. A river-name like lardanos, Minos the Cretan Moses, Diktynna in
some respects so closely akin to DerkS and Atargatis, the evidence supplied
by Mycenaean relics of the early cult of Astarte, are only a few of a series
of suggestive indications. There are Thraco-Phrygian elements no doubt
which must be set off against these, but the possibility that the later coloni-
zation of Canaan by the Philistines and their allies was in part at least a
return wave of Europeanized Semites cannot be altogether ignored.

Conjecture apart, however, the evidence accumulated by the present
inquiry may be fairly taken to establish certain fixed points in the early
archaeology of Crete and the Aegean lands. Proofs have been given of the
existence of a pictographic system of writing which in Eastern Crete at any
rate survived into Mycenaean times, but the earlier stages of which,
on the evidence of Cretan seal-stones, may be traced far back into the
Jhirdjnjllennium before our era. The pictographic system of Crete is itself of
independent growth and, though perhaps modified by Egyptian influences,
is not a mere copy of Egyptian forms. In the Aegean world it occupies
the same position as is occupied by the ' Hittite ' hieroglyphs in Asia Minor
or Northern Syria, and it must in all probability be regarded as a sister
system with distinct points of aflinity and perhaps shading off into the
other by intermediate phases. The pictorial forms are intimately connected
with a system of linear signs which also goes back to a high antiquity,
but which in certain cases at least may be referred with some confidence
to a pictographic origin. These linear signs are of wide Aegean range,
they fit on to the syllabaries of Anatolia and Cyprus and show besides
many striking points of affinity with Semitic letters. They are found in
Egypt at an early date in the wake of Aegean influences and seem to have
been the common property of the Mycenaean civilization.

In all this we have an interesting corroboration of an ancient Cretan
tradition recorded by Diodoros. According to the Cretan version the

[372] PRIMITIVE PICTOGEAPHS AND SCRIPT, 103

received account of the invention of letters by the Phoenicians was only
partially true. The Phoenicians had not invented written characters but
had simply ' changed their shapes.'^^ In other words they had not done
more than improve on an existing system,— which is precisely what the
evidence now before us seems to suggest. We may further infer from^ the
Cretan contention recorded by Diodoros that the Cretans themselves claimed
to have been in possession of a system of writing before the introduction of
the Phoenician alphabet. The present discovery on Cretan soil of both a
pictographic and a linear script dating from times anterior to any known
Phoenician contact thus affords an interesting corroboration of this little
regarded record of an ancient writer.

But the evidence of the Cretan seal-stones to which these remarkable
results are mainly due does not end here. In many other ways they
throw a new and welcome light on the early culture of the Hellenic world.
The implements and instruments of Crete in Mycenaean times are here
before us. The elements are present for the reconstruction in one case at
least of a great decorative design. The pursuits of the possessors of the
seals are clearly indicated, the ships that they sailed in, the primitive lyres
to which they sang, the domestic animals that they tended, the game that
they hunted, the duodecimal numeration that they employed. On the
earlier seals we are able to trace the beginnings of this Aegean culture to an
age much more remote than the great days of Mycenae. We see before us
the prototypes of more than one of the characteristic forms of Mycenaean
times. Here are its familiar vases in an earlier stage of development, its
decorative beads approaching more and more the primitive clay button, its
butterflies and polyps and even its mysterious lion-headed beings. Above all
we find abundant proofs of a close contact with the Egypt of the Twelfth
Dynasty, and of the taking over of the spiral system that characterizes
the scarab decoration of that period. We can thus, as already pointed out, trace
to its transported germ the origin of that spiral system which was afterwards
to play such an important part not in Mycenaean art alone but in that of
a vast European zone. On the other side we find at this same early period,
which may be roughly characterized as the middle of the third millennium
before our era, accumulated proof of a close connexion with the Easternmost
Mediterranean shores. The camel, perhaps the ostrich, was already familiar
to the Cretan merchants and the ivory seals of Canaan were hung from their
wrists. Already at that remote period Crete was performing her allotted
part as the stepping-stone of Continents.

*' Diod. Lib. v. c. 74. (paa-'i {sc. ot Kp^res) helleniques en Crete est venue bien heureuse-

Totis ioiviKas oiiK e'l opxijs ^vptiv aXXh. robs meut conflrmer ces donntes des anciens, qui,

rvTTovs Ttav ypaf^fuiTui' iHTadiivai ii6vov. M. J. on le voit, en savalent bien plus sur les temps

P. Six kindly reminded me of this passage. pr^helWniques qu'on ne le croit commnn6ment, '
He adds ' la d&ouverte des hieroglyplies pre-

THE SEPULCHRAL DEPOSIT OF HAGIOS ONUPHPJOS

NEAR PHAESTOS
IN ITS RELATION TO PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN

CULTURE.

105 THE H AGIOS ONUPHRIOS DEPOSIT.

THE SEPULCHRAL DEPOSIT OF HAGTOS ONUPHRIOS NEAR
PHAESTOS IN ITS RELATION TO PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND

AEGEAN CULTURE.

The Phaestos deposit so frequently referred to in the preceding pages ^
is of such unique importance in the early archaeology of Crete and the Aegean
shores that a more detailed account of some of the objects found there will
not be out of place. The objects were found in a heap of human bones and
skulls at a spot on the hill of Hagios Onuphrios, which rises about a quarter
of a mile to the North of the double Akropolis of Phaestos. The find-spot, as
already noticed, was on the Southern slope of the hill just above the Khans
on the Dibaki road, and near the aqueduct of a mill. The deposit itself
belongs to the period of Aegean culture so well illustrated by the early
cemeteries of Amorgos, and to which the epithet ' Amorgan ' may perhaps be
conveniently applied. It represents a series of interments probably covering
a considerable space of time, but the latest objects found, such as the painted
vases (Figs. 106 — 108) below, are still prae-Mycenaean in their character,
though showing some approximation to the earliest ceramic style of Thera.
The deposit is in fact a part of what was evidently a prehistoric Necropolis
of Phaestos.

Among the seal-stones found in this deposit a three-sided steatite of the
early type has been already engraved on p. 345 (Fig. 73), and the influence of
a Twelfth Dynasty Egyptian motive has been traced in part of the design.
Another quatrefoil seal is given in Fig. 50 (p. 328) showing a fully-developed
spiral motive fitting on to the early Egyptian class. Several Egyptian scarabs
referred by experts to the same period were discovered. Amongst these is a
characteristic type of amethyst, though this, like the white steatite (Fig. 77),
is ornamented with plain circles. A more elaborate decoration into which
the spiral largely enters is seen in Fig. 78. Fig. 79 is a steatite bead-seal,
perhaps suggested by a form of shell, and is somewhat analogous to the class
described as 'cowroids,' while Fig. 80, with a similar leaf ornament, is carved
above into a convoluted relief which has been compared to two nerita shells
with a common whorl. ^

The clay cylinder (Fig. 81) with side perforations is remarkable.
Unlike the Babylonian cylinders, it is engraved only at top and bottom. The
design above may perhaps be interpreted by the light of a better example of a
similar design on an early seal from the Heraeon at Argos ^ as a man standing
before a large shield approaching the typical Mycenaean form.

•■ See p. 14 (283) and 56 (325) seqq. indebted to Dr. Waldstein, Director of the ex-

^ See p. 20(289). cavations of the American School at the Heraeon.

3 For the sight of an impression of this I am

PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE.

106

Fig. 77. — White Steatite Scarab
(2 diams. ).

Fig. 78. — Steatite Scarab
(2 diams.).

796. 79c.

Fig. 79.— Steatite (2 diams.).

80a.

80J.

FiQ. 80,— Steatite (2 diams.).

107

THE HAGIOS ONUPHRIOS DEPOSIT,

81«.. 81*.

Fig. 81. — Terracotta (Natural Size)

82a. 82b.

Fig. 82.— Steatite (2 diams. ).

81c.

83fe, b.
Fig. 83. — Steatite, Hauran.

81 (6Js) a. Fig. 81 [bis).— I) av,x Steatite (2 diams.). 81 (Aw) b.

.—Steatite (2 diams.). 846.

PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE. 108

Of the button-seals, one with what look like rude linear characters has been
engraved on p. 16 (285), Fig. 12. A broken specimen of another (Fig. 81 Us)
exhibits part of a curved design, the Twelfth Dynasty origin of which has
been illustrated above.* The most remarkable for form is the eagle-shaped
seal (Fig. 82) of green steatite, engraved below with a very rude figure of a
goat. This seal, as already pointed out,^ finds a close parallel in a Syrian

Fig. 85.— Ivoky (2 diams.).

example from the Hauran, which is here illustrated (Fig. 83 a, h) for the
sake of comparison. The HaurSn seal is engraved with curious characters.
Equally Oriental in their connexions are a class of conical and sub-conical
seals, represented in the Phaestos deposit by four examples. Fig. 84 a, h
is of steatite, and the interlaced design appears to be of Egyptian
derivation. The other three are of ivory, a material which, as already

86ai. 866.

Fig. 86.— Ivoet (2 diams.)

87a.
Fig. 87.— Ivoey (2 diams.).

noticed (p. 64 (333)), is not unfrequently used for seals of the same form
from the coast of Syria. Fig. 85 appears to represent a rude figure of an
eagle with two pellets on either side. The geometrical designs on Figs. 86,
87 recur on the Maeonian mould and a curious leaden object to be de-
scribed below.^'' Among other small stone objects are a yellow steatite

■' See p. 58 (327), Fig. 49A.

5 P. 65 (334).

5a See p. 132, 133.

109

THE HAGIOS ONUPHRIOS DEPOSIT.

Fig. 89 (Natural Size).-

a. Marble and Steatite

b. Dark Steatite ; c. Rock
crystal ; d. Dark Steatite
e. Limestone ; /. Steatite
g. Ivory ; h. Dark Steatite

i., j. Gold.

pendant which recalls a similar class of objects from
the early cist-graves of Amorgos (Fig. 88), and some
cylindrical heads of marble and steatite. Other
types of beads from this deposit of various materials,
steatite, rock-crystal, variegated limestone, and gold,
are given in Fig. 89 a — ■/ It is of course conceiv-
able, considering the circumstances of the Hagios
Onuphrius find, that some one or other of these
smaller objects like the beads may have got down
from a higher level. But wherever it is possible to
judge of the date of relics contained in this deposit
their prae-Mycenaean character is well marked and
there is every probability that these minuter objects
belong to the same period.

Among the jewels are a quartz crystal worn
as a pendant with a gold mounting (Fig. 90), a
small spiral band of gold (Fig. 91), and the small
gold objects represented in Figs. 92, 93, the
application of which is indeterminate. The granu-
lated work of Fig. 94, which may have served
as the end of a pin, is interesting from its occur-
rence on some of the jewelry found at Hissarlik.^
It recurs on Mycenaean gold-work.

In some cases a bronze core has been plated
over with gold. This method is followed in the
case of three curious objects, two of which are
engraved in Figs. 95, 96, and again of Fig. 97,
perhaps part of a hilt, and three perfected knobs
(Fig. 98). The fluting of the thin gold plate with
which this latter is covered somewhat recalls the
spirally fluted silver beads of an Amorgos grave.
The objects represented in Figs. 95, 96, of which
another (96 his) occurred wholly formed of steatite,
may perhaps be compared with a perforated instru-
ment of diorite found in the burnt city at Hissarlik.'

Among the jewelry may be perhaps classed
a miniature figure of a beaked vase carefully
wrought in variegated limestone (Fig. 99), and
another, less well shaped, of black steatite. These
objects seem to have been pendants serving as
amulets. As an ornamental appendage vases of
similar form adorn the top of a gold pin ^ found in
one of the three smaller treasures of Hissarlik.

' Cf. especially the gold earring, Schliemann,
IHos, p. 489, Fig. 840. ^ 2lws, Fig. 557, p. 440.

* Schliemann, lUos, p. 488, Fig. 834, and cf.
Fig. 850.

PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE.

110

Fifi. 88. — Yellow Stea-
tite (Natural Size).

Fig. 90. — Crystal with Gold
Mounting (Natural Size).

Fig. 91.— Gold
(Natural Size).

Fig. 92.— Gold
(Slightly Enlarged).

Fig. 93.— Gold
(Slightly Enlarged).

Fig. 94.— Gold
(Natural Size).

Ill

THE HAGIOS ONUPHEIOS DEPOSIT.

Fig. 95. — Beonze, Gold-Plated (Natural Size).

96a.

96J.

Fig. 96. — Bkonze, Gold-Plated
(Natural Size).

Fig. 96 6m.— Steatite.
(Natural Size).

Fig. 97.— Bronze, Gold-Plated
(Natural Size).

Fig, 98.— Bronze, Gold-Plated
(Natural Size).

PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE. 112

Small gold ornaments of the same oenocLoe-like shape have come to light
in Mycenaean sepulchral deposits at Mycenae itself, Menidi, Dimeni, and
again at Arne ; 8 in these cases however the spout is horizontal, whereas in
the Trojan and Phaestian examples it slopes upwards. The religious signifi-
cance of this type of vessel is shown by their appearance in the hands
of the mysterious daemons of Mycenaean times.

Fio. 99.— Vabiegated Limestone (Slightly Enlarged).

Early types of pottery from the Hagios Onuphrios find are represented
in Figs. 100, 102, 103. Fig. 100 is of a dark blackish brown colour with per-
forated handles for suspension and a cover with four additional handles.
The cover is almost identical with one found in the First City of Troy,°*
and the whole type of vessel, with the perforated, ear-like handles, answers
to those of the earliest strata of Hissarlik. Fig. 101, from an early cist-
grave at Arvi (see below), is added for the sake of comparison. It too is
of the same dark bucchero, but of finer fabric, and it greatly resembles a
vase from the earliest settlement at Tiryns.*"^ Fig. 102 is a cover of another

Fig. 100. — Phaestos (§ diam. ).

hanging pot of the same bucchero ware. Fig. 103 is a small spouted
vessel of the same dark paste, and Fig. 104 is a small reddish brown

" In the Central Museum at Athens. down).

^^Sch]iema,Tin,TrojanischeAUerthiimer, Atlas, '^ SoUiemann, Tiryns, p. 58, Xo. 1.

Taf. 21, 14 ra. Ilios, p. 215, No. 27 (upside

113

THE HAGIOS ONUPHRIOS DEPOSIT.

vessel with four handles, two of them for suspension with douhlo vertical
perforations. The double-horned object of brown bucchero (Fig. 105)
strongly recalls the horned handles (ansa cornute) so characteristic of the

Fig. 101. — Arvi (§ diam. ),

Italian terremarc. It is doubtless an attachment of a pot and from the
two holes below seems to have been intended to resemble an ox's head. Its
nearest parallel is the fragment of a vase representing a horned head of the
same kind found in the early cemetery of Agia ParaskevS in Cypras.

Fig. 102.— PiiAESTOs (i diam.).

Fig. 103,— Phaestos (Slightly Reduced). Fig. 104.— Piiaestos (Slightly Reduced).

Of a more advanced technique, but still baud-made like the others, are
Figs. 106, 107, 108, which show the beginnings of painted ware with a dull
surface. The round-bottomed oenochoe (Fig. 105) has a pale yellow ground

PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE. lU

Fig. 105.— Tjsrkaootta.

Fig. 106b. — Bottom of Spouted Vase.

Fig 106a —Spouted Vase Painted Pale Yellow, with Tehhacotta Steipes (J Linear)

I 2

115

THE HAGIOS OKUPHRIOS DEPOSIT.

fiG. 107. — Painted Pyxis ; White Bands on Terracotta Coloured ground (J Linear).

Fig, 108.— Painted Vase (Slightly i-educed ; 12 cent. high).

PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE. 116

with terracotta-coloured stripes. In form and colouring it shows some
affinity to the later class of vases in the Amorgos cemeteries. FiCT. 107 is a
kind of pyxis with white bands on a terracotta ground. Originally, no
doubt, it was provided with a cover.

The jar represented in Fig. 108 shows still greater advance in the art of
colouring pottery ; it bears red and white stripes on a greyish black ground,
and its tints agree with those of some of the vessels found in the Kamares
cave, on the Southern side of Mt. Ida." Indeed, the Kamares pottery must
be brought into very direct relation with Phaestos, within whose territory it
probably lay. On the other hand, the style of colouring shows a distinct
approach to that of the earliest vases from Thera and Therasia. The design
on this jar, and to a certain degree its shape, seems to me to stand in a
direct relation to a very beautiful type of stone vase (Fig. 123) which was
in vogue in prehistoric Crete.

Fig. 109.— Phaestos ; Limestone (Natural Size).

Stone vases play a very important part in the early remains of Crete, as
also in the contemporary deposits of Naxos, Amorgos, and other early Aegean
sites. A small limestone vase from the Hagios Onuphrios deposit is given in
Fig. 109, together with its lid of the same material. Except that its cover
is not provided with a knob at top, this vase bears a close resemblance to one
(Fig. 119) obtained by me from a prehistoric cemetery at Arvi, the ancient
Arbi, on the South-Eastern coast of the island. The variegated limestone
vase, Fig. 110, now in the Ashmolean Museum, was found, like Fig. 109,
near Phaestos, and probably belongs to the same early necropolis.

These stone vases form such a characteristic feature in early Cretan
deposits, and seem to afford in certain cases such a definite chronological clue,
that a fuller account of those that I was able to meet with in the course of
ray recent explorations may not be amiss. They differ from the stone vessels

w See above, pp. 79 (348), 81 (350) and note,

117 THE HAGIOS ONUPHRIOS DEPOSIT.

of the ' Amorgan Period,' such as are usually found in the prae-Mycenaean
deposits of the Aegean islands, in two particulars. The stone-ware such as
is discovered for instance in the early tombs of Naxos and Aniorgos is
generally of white, apparently Parian, marble. The Cretan vessels are of
far more varied materials. The other respect in which they differ from the
kindred Aegean class is that they show a much greater conformity with
certain types of Egyptian ^^ and, possibly too, of Libyan stone vessels.^'^

Fir. 110. — PiiAESTOs ; Variegated Limestone (^ diam. ).

Massive pots of serpentine and diorite supported by pedestals of
limestone or baked clay, forming incense altars, appear in Egyptian tombs
from the time of the Fourth Dynasty (Fig. Ill), and several of these dating
from tiie Fourth to the Sixth Dynasties are preserved in the Gizeli Museum.
They are often provided with perforated horizontal handles, and the rim at
top is generally broad and flat.

A dark stone vessel (Fig. 112) found at Pinies above Elunta, the ancient
Olous, bears, as will be seen by a comparison with Fig. Ill, a very close
resemblance to this archaic Egyptian class. A plainer type (Fig. 113)
without handles was procured by me at Goulks, where larger vessels formed
of a kind of conglomerate may still be seen beside some of the ancient cisterns
Some of these were noticed by Spratt.^^

Another prolific find-spot of this early Cretan stone-ware is Arvi, the
site of the ancient Arbi, on the South-Eastern coast, where there existed an
early cemetery of the same period as the sepulchral deposit of Phaestos.
Figs. 114, 1 15, 116, 117, and the clay suspension vase (Fig. 101), were described
as having been found here on either side of the head of a skeleton enclosed
in a rude stone cist. Figs. 118 and 119 are from the same necropolis. Fig.
118 closely resembles an Egyptian alabaster kohl-pot without its 'collar.' In
the case of Figs. 117, 119 both the form of the vessel itself and the knobbed

1^ Tliere are however some flat stone vessels near there the raannfaottire of many of the

from Amorgos, round in outline with four finer forms of stone vessels found in Egypt in

oblong protuberances at the four points of their a settlement of an unknown race, possibly

circumference, which closely resemble a form Libyan, the date of which he places between

of Egyptian stone 'patera,' often iirovided with the Sixth and Eleventh Dynasties. Like the

a spout. Cretan, these vessels have flat bases.

^^ Mr. Petrie writes to mo from Nagada on " Travels in Crete, vol. i. p. 135,
the Upper Nile that he believes to have located

PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE. 118

Fig. 111. — EoYrTiAN Iscense Y.a..se or Sjshpen'tine on Limestoxe. Fofeth Dynasty.

Fig. J12 — Bbown Stone Vajse, Pinies, Elunta (Oloits). \ diam.

119 THE H AGIOS ONUPHRIOS DEPOSIT.

lids that surmount them are ahnost identical with that oi stone vases found
in Twelfth Dynasty deposits. A steatite lid of this date from Kahun " (Fig.
120) might have been made for the same pot as Fig. 115. It thus appears
that the early stone vessels of Crete bear witness like the seals ^^ to an
intimate contact with the Nile Valley as early as the iirst half of the Third
millennium before our era. In view of such early parallels as are suggested
by Fig. 112 we may indeed well ask ourselves whether this Egyptian influence
may not date back to a time anterior even to the Twelfth Dynasty. It is
true that the flattening of the bottom distinguishes these Cretan types
from the very earliest class of Egyptian stone vessels, which are rounded
below, and that the hieroglyph for 'granite' is in fact a round-bottomed
vessel of this class. Vessels of basalt, alabaster, and other materials, with
a flat base and otherwise greatly resembling some of the Cretan types, were
however already known under the Early Empire."" They were common, as
we now know from Mr. Petrie's recent researches, among the Libyans of the
Upper Nile before the time of the Eleventh Dynasty.

The flat steatite bowl (Fig. 121) is interesting from its having been found
in the cave sanctuary of Psychro on Mount Lasethe, probably the DiUaion
Antron of the Lyttians.^*' Fig. 122 from Chersonesos is specially remarkable
from the beauty of its material, a limestone conglomerate, and from the
evident traces of some kind of turning.

Of all the forms of early stone vases found in Crete the most artistic is
certainly that reproduced in Fig. 123, which has already been referred to as
aS'ording a probable suggestion for the decoration of the painted jar from
Phaestos (Fig. 108). Massive as it is, the graceful foliations that surround it
give it almost the appearance of a flower- cup embedded in its calix. That
this elegant type of vessel was once much in vogue in the island is indicated
by the fact that I came across two similar examples, one on the Northern, the
other on the Southern coast of Crete. The latter was from a site known to
the natives from the ancient pots found there as ' Pharmakokephali,' which
perhaps may be translated ' Gallipot Head,' on or near the site of the ancient
Ampelos.i^'' The other (Fig. 123) was obtained by me at Milato, the ancient
Miletos, and was said to have been found within two feet of a curious pot
of a shape suggestive of a ' swallow's-nest ' ^^ in what seems to have been an
ancient grave. Both the elegant contour of this type of stone vessel and the
apparent influence of the design on the earliest painted pottery of the island,
approaching in date that of Santorin and Therasia, seem to bring these vases
down to the latest prae-Mycenaean period. Stone vessels continued, as is well

" Given me by Professor Petrie. _ below the steatite bowl from Psychio (Fig. 121).

'= See above, p. 57 (326) seqq. i" See Academy, June 1, 1895, p. 469.

'^'"^ In the recent Exhibition of Egyptian ^^^ This specimen was given by me to the

Antiquities at the Burlington Club, London, Museum of the Syllogos at Candia.

was an alabaster vase of the Early Empire, with " Two other vessels of this form procured by

a flat bass, greatly resembling that from Pinies Professor Halbherr in the Province of Siteia are

(Fig. 112), and another bowl of black basalt of now in the Museum of the Syllogos at Candia.
the same early period, somewhat resembling

PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE.

120

Fig. 113.— Goui.Xs; Grey Stea-hte (| diara.).

■5'// * .^^'»

7v.

Fig. 114.— Cist Grave, Arvi ; Steatite (| diam.).

Fig. 115.— Cist Grave, Arvi ;
Steatite (| diam.).

c 2% -•

o- ,-■ 1% ■ >

Fig, 116.— Cist Grave, Arvi ;
Steatite (| diaiit).

121

THE HAGIOS ONUPHRIOS DEPOSIT.

5% >

Fig. 117.— Clst Grave, Arvi ; Steatite (\ diani.).

Fio, 118.— Anvi; Limestone (| diam.).

'/»■■'

Fig. 119.— Anvi ; Banded Limestone (| diam.),

PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE.

122

known, into Mycenaean times, but these display a still more advanced
technique, and spiral and volute flutings and figures in relief. Fragments of
this Mycenaean class have been found at Kuosos.

Fig. 120.— Steatite Lid, Twelfth Dynasty Deposit, Kahux, Egypt (J diam.).

The vases are for the most part of steatite, in many eases approaching
that made use of for the early Cretan gems and seal-stones. Where this was

Fig. 121.— Cave, Psychro ; Steatite (| diam.).

procured is as yet a mystery, but from its constant employment it seems
probabfe that it exists in great masses in the island. The material of Fig.

123

THE HAGIOS ONUPHRIOS DEPOSIT.

112 is less easily definable; its harder texture and the porphyritic crystals
that it contains are both noteworthy. The banded limestone of Fig. 119
seems to be foreign to Crete.

Fig. 122.— Chkhsokj^sos ; Limestone Coxolomekate (| diam,).

It is evident with regard to the technique that in most cases the vases
have been turned, and it looks as if in Crete the use of the wheel for
stone vases may have preceded its application to clay. It is a significant
fact that the clay vessels found with the stone pots (Figs. 114, 115, 116,

Fig. 123.— Mi'lato; Steatite (| diam.).

117) from Arvi and that from Milato were hand-made, though in the former
case at any rate the stone vases from the same grave had the appearance of
having been turned. The stone vases were further finished by scraping or
chisellincf.

PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE. 124

I am indebted to Mr. J. L. Myres for the following detailed notes on the
material and fabric of the above stone vases.

Fig. 112. Black matrix, with dull brown patches, whicli appear to be slightly softer, and
numerous well-defined long porphyritic crystals of yellowish white colour. Harder than the other
vases but scratched without difficulty with the knife, and slightly absorbent to the touch in spite
of the comparatively high polish. (Pinies, Elunta.)

Fig. 113. Steatite, greyish white with indistinct lighter and softer streaks. Split by heat
on one side. Partly turned, partly scraped. (Goulas.)

Fig 114. Steatite ; blackish brown, with wavy structure and white patches which are softer ;
turned on tho lathe. (Arvi. )

Fig. 115. Steatite ; greyish with indistinct light coloured patches rather harder but less dense
tnan Figs. 114, 116. The lid with this is of steatite j black compact ground with distinct white
patches which are softer. It is partly turned, partly scraped or ground. (Arvi.)

Fig. 116. Steatite ; black with irregular white patches which are softer. Turned on the lathe
and finished outside with a knife or a chisel. (Arvi.)

Fig. 117. Steatite ; black compact ground with rather rarer white patches. Partly turned,
partly nibbed. (Arvi.)

Figs. 114-117 seem to be of the same origin, though their qualities vary slightly. [They are
from the same group of early tombs at Arvi. ]

Fig. 118. Limestone ; compact, greyish ; mottled with white calcspar ; not unlike specimens
of common cretaceous limestone of the Levant. Turned. (Arvi.)

Fig. 119. Limestone ; compact and slightly argillaceous, finely banded in grey and cream
white. (Arvi. )

This material is not known in Crete, nor likely to occur there. The steatite lid with this did
not originally belong to it. Its material much resembles that of Fig. 113. It is partly turned,
partly rubbed.

Fig. 120. Steatite ; blackish brown with reddish patches which are softer but less 'weathered '
than Figs. 114-117. Partly turned, partly rubbed, and with a good surface polish. (From Kahun,
Egypt.)

Fig. 121. Steatite ; compact, brownish and very soft, much damaged. (Psychro Cave.)

Fig. 122. Limestone breccia ; white, pink and yellow, red matrix. Not known in Crete.
(Chersonesos.)

Fig. 123. Steatite ; gi'eyish, with indistinct lighter and softer patches and streaks ; very like
Fig. 113. No traces of turning ; cut and scraped. (Milato.)

Figs. 113 and 121 and tho lid of Fig. 118 very closely resemble one another, and might very
well be from the same mass.

Among the stone objects discovered at Hagios Onuphrios the marble 'idols,'
of which sketches are given below in Figs. 124—132 1^ are of essentially the
same class as those found in Amorgos and other Greek islands. The series
here brought to light bears witness to a degree of evolution of form which
seems to indicate the lapse of a considerable period of time. Figs. 124 — 126
may be compared with the simplest Trojan examples. In Fig. 131, on the
other hand, we have a more advanced type, in which the arms are clearly
drawn laid across the body just below the breasts, and the breasts themselves
are in full relief. In Figs. 127 — 130 we have various intermediate types.
Fig. 134 is a head alone with two perforations in the neck for attachment.

To these Phaestian specimens I am able to add two other Cretan
examples said to have been found in the Province of Siteia (Figs. 133, 134).

'* The small image represented in Fig. 127 is probably belongs to tho same deposit, and in

now in the Ashmolean Museum. It was ac- any case illustrates the same period of local

quired by me at Caudia and was stated by its culture,
possessor to have been found at Phaestos. It

125

THE HAGIOS ONUPHRIOS DEPOSIT.

Fig. 124 (Slightly Eulavged).

Fig. 126 (Natural Size).

127a

Fig. 125 (Natural Size).

Fig. 127
(Natural Size).

Fig. 128 (Natural Size).

PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE.

126

Fig. 129 (Natural Size).

Fig. 132 (Slightly Enlarged).

Fig. 130 (| linear).

Fig. 131 (I linear).

127 THE H AGIOS ONUPHRIOS r)EP08lT.

Like the others, they are of Parian marble, so that the material at least must
have been imported.

An exhaustive discussion of the various questions raised by these curious
fio-ures would require a separate dissertation. Here it must be sufficient to
remark that the theory according to which we have simply to deal with
degenerate copies from Chaldaean prototypes representing Istar or the
Mother Goddess does not accord with the evidence at present before us.

The simpler forms of these Aegean figures are so lacking in detail as to
afford no deBnite points of comparison with the Asiatic types in question.
On the other hand, if we turn to the West and North, we find a whole series
of early images of clay, stone, and other materials which certainly seem to fit on
to these Aegean forms. From the remains of the early settlements of Troy, we
know that simple forms of this class of figures occur indifferently in marble,
clay, and bone. Alabaster and clay figures of the same class are scattered
through the Thracian lands and beyond the Danube as far afield as Rou-
manian^ and the valley of the Maros in Transylvania. But beyond the
Carpathians again there appears another parallel class of primitive figures
which must perhaps be regarded as the most characteristic product of a vast
Neolithic Province including a large part of Poland, East Prussia, and Western
Russia. Stalagmite figures of this kind have been found in the Polish Caves,^"
on the East-Prussian coast they recur in amber,^^ and a bone figure of the
same kind has been found by Inostranzeff in the remains of a Neolithic
station on the shore of Lake Ladoga.^^ These Northern figures do not exhibit
indeed any marked indications of sex. On one amber example, however, the
body is marked by an imperfect triangular outline which resembles the
representation of the vulva on some of the Trojan or Aegean types. The
double perforation at the junction of the neck and body which characterizes
some of the Baltic and Russian examples recalls the perforations on the
neck of the 'idols' from Phaestos and Si tela represented in Figs. 133, 134,
and that of the head by itself in Fig. 132.^^ The holes and grooves on
some of the Baltic forms suggest attachment to other objects, and a marble
figure from an Amorgan cist (Fig. 135) shows lines upon it which seem to
indicate the same application.^^^ It would be unwise to insist too much on
these resemblances in detail, but taken in connexion with the appearance
of this parallel class of Northern figures they can hardly be without some
significance.

'" Primitive clay statuettes have been found berg, 1882).
at Cucuteni in Rouniania (Antiqua, 1890, Taf. ^^ Tisohler, op. cU. 118 (30) Fig. 10.

V. 2). Cf. Bulletin dc la SocUti d' Anthropologic, ^' On a marble idol from Amorgos (Ashmolean

1889, p. 582, and S. Reinach, Anthropologic, Coll. ) the thighs are bored.
1894, p. 293. -^^ Now in the Ashmolean Museum. This

2" Ossowski iv. Zbior Wiadomosci do Antro- iigure shows signs of painting on the right side

pologii Krajowej. (Third report on Polish of the neck, apparently representing a pendant

Caves, op. cit. (1881) I. vi. pp. 28-51, PI. iii.- look of hair. This is the same figure as that

V.) Materiaux, 1882, pp. 1-24, PI. I. II. sketched by Dr. Welters {Ath. Mitth. 1891

Tisohler, Steinzcit in Ostpreusscn, pp. 96, 97. p. 49 Fig. 3) and is from Grave D described by

^' Tischlor, Steinzcit in Ostpreusscn, p. 2.'> (g). Dr. Diimmler {Alh. Mitth. 1886, p. 15 scqq.).
Figs. 6, 7 [Schriften d. phys.-oek, Ges., Konigs-

PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE.

128

Fi&. 133.— SiTEiA (I linear;.

Fig, 134.— Siteia (S linear).

129

THE HAGIOS ONUPHRIOS DEPOSIT.

The Aegean and Northern group together occupy in fact a continuous
zone roughly divided by the Carpathians. It would even appear that this
zone had a Libyan extension. A clay female figure acquired by Mr. Petne 2*
from Abusir, near Sameineh, in the middle of the Delta, must clearly be
regarded as a somewhat developed offshoot from the same primitive family.
The lower part of this 'idol' resembles the Greek island figures, but the
side-lock on the head gives this foreign relic from Egyptian soil a typically
Libyan aspect. Small images in a squatting posture were also found by
Mr. Petrie in his recently discovered settlement of an unknown, probably

Fig. 135. — Cist Gkave, Amokgos (Natural Size).

Libyan, race on the Upper Nile. These recall a class of squatting, obese
female figures that may be traced from Thrace to Attica and the Peloponnese
and which in turn curiously resemble the so called ' Cabiri ' found in the
prehistoric building known as Hagiar Kim in Malta,^''^ — a structure the

^ See Illalmn, Kahun and Guroi, PI. xix. 43,
and J). 19. It might also be an interesting
question how far the Egypti.in wooden dolls
ending above in a rectangular stump, to which
the beadstrings are tied to represent hair, may-
go back to primitive types ot ' idols ' resembling
the Aegean. The parallelism is sometimes
striking.

^■"^ Caruana Report on the Phoenician &c.
Antiquities of Malta, pp. 30, 31 and photo-
graph ; Furse, Preliistoric Congress, Norwich,
p. 412 and PI. ii. Perrot et Chipiez, T. iii.
Phdnicie, &o,, p. 305, Figs. 230, 231, where the
Hagiar Kim itself, this counterpart of Talyots
and chambered barrows, reappears as a ' Phoe-
nician Temple.'

PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE, 130

affinities of whicli point in almost equal degrees to North Africa and the
Iberian West.

_ Proceeding westwards we find the X-Hke lines on the bodies of some
Trojan figures ^s recurring in a more decorative form on the female clay ' idol '
from the Laibach pile-settlement, and on another primitive image from the
prehistoric Station at Butmir in Bosnia.^^b -^^^ ^o speak of some general re-
semblances presented by certain rude clay images found in the Swiss Lake
dwellings and Italian terremare, recent discoveries on the Tyrrhene and still
more westerly Mediterranean shores have supplied parallels of a very inter-
esting kind. In the Finale Caves on the old Ligurian coast have been found
clay figures 26 of ' Aeneolithic ' date approaching those of Hissarlik and
perhaps affording the nearest prototypes to Mycenaean forms. In Spain
again the Brothers Siret have found figures of schist and bone in Neolithic
and early Bronze Age deposits ^'^ which seem to stand in a direct relationship
to the Aegean ' idols.' A whale-bone figure was found with Neolithic relics
at Skara in Orkney, and images with the attributes of maternity strongly
emphasized were already known to the European population of the Eeindeer
Period.27b

In view of these widely ramifying and deeply-rooted European con-
nexions ^'■° it seems in the highest degree unsafe to assume that the earliest
Aegean ' idols ' of the present class are nothing more than degenerate copies
of early Chaldaean images. Bather it is reasonable to suppose that the wide-
spread primitive custom may have had a more easterly extension as far as the
valley of the Euphrates. From the frequent association of these images with
interments alike in the Aegean islands, the Ligurian caves, and South-Eastern
Spain, we are led to infer that they had some connexion with ideas relating
to the Nether World. This view is in fact supported by parallels from remote

25 S.ff. Schliemanii, Troy, p. 331, Fig. 193. ^'b For the ' Venus of Brassempouy, ' and

2''' Kadimsky und Hoernes, Die NeoUthische other ivoiy figurines from the same sub-Pyren-

Slation von Butmir hei Sarajevo in Bosnien, aean gi'otto, see Anthropologie, T. vi. (1895),

Taf. ii. 2. p. 141 sqq.

2" See A. Issel, Liguria Geologica e Prehis- '^'^ Since this was written I have had an op-

iorica Tav. xxviii. Figs. 11 and 14, and my portunity of perusing M. Salomon Reinach's

' Prehistoric Interments of the Balzi-Rossi Caves articles entitled ' La Sculpture en Europe avant

and their relation to the Cave-Burials of the les influences greco-romaines ' (Anthropologic,

Finalese' (^»«Ar. Inst. Joiirn., 1893 p. 306 and 1894, 15-34, 173-186, 288-305; 1895, 18-39,

note), where attention is called to the fact that 293-311). In these M. Reinach, lilce myself,

one of these primitive images is painted and lays stress on the parallelism presented by the

belongs to the Ligurian class of Neolithic painted Trojan and Aegean forms of primitive images

pottery. (Cf. G. B. Amerano, Dei Vasi coloraii with those of Spain, the Danubian regions,

e dipinti delle Cavcrne di Finale.) These vases and the Amber Coast of the Baltic. He also

are the Ligurian counterparts of the prae- maintains that these European forms were

Mycenaean class of Sikel (or Sikan) painted evolved from the rudest and simplest prototypes

ware. A somewhat more advanced painted rather than that they degenerated from higher

figure was found in a neolithic ' cave ' tomb, models : ' liltant donne un pilier ou une tablette

vluafrati near Palermo. quadrangulaire, on pouvait d'abord, pour sug-

27 Premiers Ages de Mital dans le Sud-Est de gerer I'idee de la forme humaine, amincir cer-

I'Espagne, pp. 32, 57, 257, and Plates vi. and taines parties, telle que la taille ct le con, de

• La fin de Vepoque neolUMque en Espiagne, maniere a faire saillir les epaules et la tete '

Anthropologie, 1892, pp. 387, 399. (op. eit. 1894, p. 291).

K 2

131 THE H AGIOS ONUPHRIOS DEPOSIT,

parts of the globe. In Japan there is actually a historic record of the sub-
stitution in place of the slaves and retainers who sacrificed themselves to
their deceased lord of small figures deposited in his grave. The Ushabtis or
' E^pondants' of the Egyptian tombs are said to have had a similar object,
and it was their function to act as substitutes for the dead person when his
turn came to work in the fields below. In ancient Mexican graves terracotta
heads are of frequent occurrence, which seem to have been attached to figures
of more perishable material ^^ and to have represented the wives or slaves of
the departed. It is probable that the Phaestos head with two holes in the
neck was also made for attachment to a body of some less lasting substance.

What we have to deal with then is an 'Aegean' version of a primitive
funereal custom which both in the Western Mediterranean basin and in the
Danubian and Baltic lands seems to have had a wide European extension over
a continuous area. In the Egyptian Ushabtis we have perhaps a conven-
tionalized type of what may have originally been a southern offshoot of one
archaic family. The occurrence of clay ' idols ' of the same general character
in Cypriote ' Copper Age ' cemeteries like that of Alambira shows an Asiatic
extension of the same custom, and we are thus led to the curious nude
figures seen on early Chaldaean cylinders.^^

These nude images have in this case been plausibly connected with the
legend of the Goddess Istar, who, in order to pass through the seven gates of
' the Unchanging Land without return ' — there to procure the Waters of Life
for her ' wounded Thammuz ' — was forced to strip herself one by one of her
robes and jewels till she went in at last mother-naked. It is certain that a
direct piece of evidence connects them with her double — the Goddess Sala.
Although no similar Chaldaean images of clay and stone are known of
this early date, the absolute correspondence in type presented by
Asiatic clay figures of a much later period permits us to suppose that more
archaic examples will some day be brought to light. The connexion
with the visit of the Mother Goddess to the abode of Death is just such a
mythic outgrowth from the primitive custom of burying the naked image of a
wife or mother with the departed as might have been expected. It was also
inevitable — admitting such a mythic superstructure — that the Eastern family
of such funereal images should afterwards undergo a religious transformation
and be identified with or assimilated to Istar or some one or other of her
Asiatic equivalents. The Syrian influence, resulting in a more sensuous
type of female image, with the organs of maternity strongly emphasized,
undoubtedly spread through Anatolia, and early left its mark on the clay
figures of the Cypriote graves. It may however be laid down as an absolute
rule that the earlier the image the less trace there is of any such Asiatic

2^ E. B. Tylor, Anahuac, p. 229. on one cylinder this and a nude male figure that

^ See, for examples, Menant, Glyptique often occurs with it are identified by the inscrip-

Orientale i. p. 172, pp. 173-175 ; Figs. 110-116. tion with Sala and Ramanu, in many respects

Menant regarded the connexion with Istar as in reduplicate forms of Istar and Tammuz.

these cases 'not proven,' Mkolsky, however Ramanu is the Syrian Rimmon,

{Rev. Arch. 1891, ii, p. 41), has now shown that

PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE. 1^2

influence. The figures in the earliest deposits of Hissarlik — those of the
First City — are absolutely primitive and the most removed from all suggestion
of these supposed Chaldaean prototypes. The existence of a continuous group
of primitive ' idols ' on European soil going back to Neolithic times, and
extending from Crete to the shores of Lake Ladoga in one direction and to
the Pillars of Hercules in the other, must in the absence of very direct
evidence to the contrary be regarded as an independent phenomenon.

So far as existing evidence goes, at the time when the Istar model first
reached the Aegean shores their inhabitants were already in the age of
metals, and it appears as an intrusive form beside the more primitive idols
which they had handed down from Neolithic times. A leaden female image
found by Dr. Schliemann in the second city of Hissarlik s" clearly betrays its
oriental parentage. The swastika engraved on the vulva is also evidently a
stamp of godhead. This figure in turn finds its parallel in one of a pair of male
and female divinities that appear on a serpentine mould, now in the Louvre,
found at Selendj, East of Thyatira in the ancient Maeonia^i (Fig. 135),
and these figures, as M. Salomon Reinach has shown,^^ isike us back again
to another Asiatic mould of the same material in which a God and Goddess
are once more represented side by side. In this latter example the God
with the horned headpiece evidently stands for a form of Bel, while his
female companion, though in this case her lower limbs are draped after the
flounced Babylonian fashion,^^ bears on her head a curious [rayed half circle,
which sufiiciently betrays her identity. It is, in fact, the upper part of that
special variety of the radiate disk which in Chaldean symbolism indicates
the star of Istar.

The Western influence of the Babylonian type would find a curious
illustration if we might accept the genuineness of a lead figure said to have
been found with another lead object exhibiting cruciform ornaments near
Candia. These objects were obtained in 1889 by Mr. Greville Chester, and
are now in Jhe Ashmolean Collection (Fig. 136). But both the figure and
the ornaments are almost line for line identical with the female divinity and
two of the engraved objects that appear on the Selendj mould. It almost
looks as if they had been actually cast in this individual mould, and if their
claim to antiquity is to be allowed it would result that these leaden objects
were imported into Crete from Maeonia in prehistoric times. The figure has
the appearance of great age, but it is possible that some Levantine dealer
may have profited by the existence of the mould to cast some lead figures
from it. The fact that the square ornament is broken off at the same point

"0 Ilios, p. 337, Fig. 226. The Babylonian produced), and of. Perrot et Chipiez v. p. 300

parentage of this figure was clearly pointed out Fig. 209.

by Sayce in his Preface to SoMiemann's Troja, ^2 Op. cit. p. 46.

pp xviii 3tix He identifies the image with "» The draped lower limbs bring us nearer to

the Trojan Atg and 'Athi, the Great Goddess of Mycenaean types. Compare especially the im-

Carohemish. He thus traces the type to pressed glass figures of a female divinity from

Chaldaea through Hittite mediation. Tomb II. of the lower city, Mycenae. Tsountas,

" ^.'ReiTi&ab., Esquisses AfcMologiques {l^Si), 'hvaoKaipaX ratpav if MuK-Zji/aij, 'E<p. 'Apx- 1888,

p. 45 (by whose kind permission it is here re- PI. viii. 9,

133

THE HAGIOS ONUl'HRIOS DEPOSIT.

as that on the mould as it at present exists is certainly suspicious, and the
lead itself had been simply poured liquid on to one face of the mould instead
of being introduced by a duct between the two halves of which the mould
originally consisted. The back of the figure and ornaments has thus no
moulding at all. It seems then that we have to deal with leaden casts taken
in modern times from a mould probably identical with that in the
Louvre.

The Babylonian characteristics of the Selendj type are even more clearly
marked than in the Trojan example. The curls beside the head, the arms
a-kimbo meeting under the breasts, and the curiously angular thighs recall
the salient features already referred to, as seen on the Chaldaean cylinders.

I'^o"'^

Ficj. 136. — Serpentine Mould, Selendj.

The mere fact however that the Hissarlik image is of lead shows that
at the time when it was made the inhabitants of the Western part of
Anatolia to which it belongs were already in the metallurgic stage of culture.
Nor do the objects, probably amulets relating to the cult of the deities
whose images they here surround on the mould, seem to indicate the most
primitive period. The find-spot of the Hissarlik figure in the ' Burnt City,'
at a depth of twenty-three feet, points nevertheless to a very early date, and
the Phaestos deposit supplies a piece of evidence which fits in with this, the

PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE. l34

occurrence namely of two perforated seals (Figs, 86, 87), one of grey steatite,
the other of ivory, which reproduce both the round and the square cruciform
ornaments of the Selendj mould.

It thus appears that during the period covered by the remains of the
Second City of Troy, to which in pait at least the Phaestos deposit can be
shown on other evidence to go back,^* Chaldaean influences were making
themselves felt on the Aegean shores, a fact also attested by the early
occurence both at Troy and in contemporary island deposits of native
imitations of Babylonian cylinders.

The possibility of Chaldaean influence on the more advanced of the
marble figures from the Phaestos deposit, as of those from the contemporary

Fig. 137. — Lead Figuees said to be fkom Candia. (Nat. Size.)

cist-graves of Amorgos, cannot therefore be altogether excluded, and the
question resolves itself simply into one of degree. If the parallels cited above
lead us to infer the existence of a primitive class of indigenous figures
throughout a wide European area which may indeed have been the common
property of old Chaldaea, we have on the other hand evidence of a return

3^ See above, p. 57 (326) seg[C[.

135

THE HAGIOS ONUPHRIOS DEPOSIT.

wave from the East due to the influence of Babylonian and Asiatic cults
which recast in a new mould the later Aegean forms.^*^

As a matter of fact there are certain features on the more advanced forms
of the Aegean marble 'idols' which may with some probability be ascribed to this
influence.

1. In the leaden image from Troy as well as on the figure of Istar on the
Maeonian mould necklaces are indicated round the neck. These are traceable
on some Trojan and Amorgan figures and apparently on Fig. 131 from Phaestos.

2. The angular widening of the thighs, specially noticeable in an example
from Delphi,^^ has an Asiatic look.

3. On a marble figure from a cist-grave at Amorgos (Fig. 135), already
noticed as apparently showing signs of binding, there seems to be traceable on
one side of the head a curling lock of hair painted on the stone, which recalls
the sidelocks of the lead figures.

4. The male type which is occasionally found among the more developed
specimens has, in the ease of one example from Amorgos,^^ a conical head-
piece divided into tiers or zones which recalls that of the male god, probabl}'
a form of Bel, associated with Istar on the Asiatic mould in the Cabinet des

Fig. 138. — Bkonze Dagger, Phaestos. (| Linear).

M^dailles.^^ Traces of a conical cap are visible on the Amorgan idol (Fig. 137).

It remains for us to consider the bronze weapons from the Phaestos
deposit, of which however only two specimens are preserved.

The flat bronze dagger-blade (Fig. 138) is of a form which also occurs in
the early cist-graves of Amorgos. The other bronze weapon given in Fig. 139
is of a more original and hitherto unique character, and must be regarded as a
double-pointed spear-head. It will be remembered that in a far more
developed stage the double-pointed spear or javelin occurs as a characteristic
weapon in the hands of a Lycaonian warrior on the well-known stele of
Iconium.^** It looks then as if the H. Onuphrios deposit presents us with the

*"■ I am wholly unable to follow M. Reinach
in Ms attempt (Rev. Arch. 1895, p. 367 seqq.
Les diesses nues dans I'art oriental et dans Vart
grec) to trace the Oriental nude figures— and
even those on the Chaldaean cylinders — to
' Aegean ' influences.

3' Athen, Miltheilungen, 1881, p. 361.

3^ In the Polytechnion at Athens.

^' S. Reinach, Msquisses Archiologigtces, p. 46.

^8 Texier, Description de I'Asie Minewe ii.
148, 149, and PI. ciii. ; Perrot etChipiez, T. iv.
p. 741, Fig. 359.

PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE.

136

prototype of a class of weapon which had a long-continued existence on the
Asianic side. The Lycaonian form indeed suggests a further connexion with
the curious two-pronged implements of bronze of which so many examples
have been found at Tel Nebesheh. These were derived from tombs
apparently belonging to mercenaries brought o«^er by Psamtik I. when he
settled Carians and Jonians at Defenneh.^^ Professor Petrie describes the
tombs in question as ' Cypriote ' but no bronze objects of the kind seem to be
known in Cyprus. From the fact that they often occur in association with
spear-heads, and from the cross piece that in some cases appears between the
prongs, Mr. Petrie inclined to believe that they were the butt-ends of spears,

Fig. 139.— Double-Pointed Bronze Speae, Phaestos. (| Linear).

forked like the lower ends of Egyptian sceptres. The existence of a double-
pointed spear or javelin in Crete and Lycaonia, coupled with the Carian
connexion in which the Tel Nebesheh objects stand, makes it just possible
however that the presence of these two-forked implements in the graves of
these mercenaries may be due to some religious survival keeping up the form
of an old national weapon for funereal usage.

M W. M. Flinders Petrie, Tanie, Pt. II. PI. iii. and pp. 20, 21. The tombs date from the
Eighth to the Fifth Century, B.C.

l3'7 THE H AGIOS ONUPHRIOS DEPOSIT'.

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.

The following supplementary notes are mainly the result of a visit to
Crete, in company with Mr. J. L. Myres, during the spring of this year.

In the neighbourhood of Retimo (Rhithymna) I heard of the existence
of a ' Column ' on which was a sign [Ijl] resembling No. 26 on Table I.
(p. 349) which is seen on a block of the prehistoric building at Knosos (see
p. 282, Fig. 9/) and again on the amphora handle from Mycenae (see p. 273,
Fig. 2). In this case however the central prong is of the same length as the
others being continued across the square part of the symbol, and in this
respect it is identical with a variety of what is evidently the same sign found
at Kahun. Owing to the jealousy of the owner of the land and the belief in
buried treasure I was not at the time able to investigate further the remains
with which this sign was here associated. I may add that the recent excava-
tions executed on behalf of the British Museum at Curium in Cyprus have
resulted in the discovery of two more linear signs of Mycenaean pottery.
One of these resembles No. 18 of Table I. The other is an upright with a
central prong on one side. Fresh discoveries of signs on Cretan seal-stones
have been made by Professor Halbherr, Dr. Mariani, and Dr. Taramelli.

The four-sided seal-stone. Fig. 32, p. 2-5 (294), now in the Ashmolean
Museum at Oxford was labelled by its original possessor, Mr. Greville Chester,
as having been found at Sparta. I saw however an impression of the same
gem in the hands of a private proprietor at Candia who had formerly pos-
sessed it and learnt from him that it was obtained in Crete, though he was
unable to inform me of its exact find-spot. Judging from its material, a red
cornelian, it probably came from the easternmost part of the island.

In the same hands at Candia I saw the impression of a three-sided seal-
stone, on one side of which were grouped the pictographs, Nos. 5 (bent leg)
and 25 (gate) while on the two other faces respectively were a wolf and an
insect, perhaps a spider.

Another three-sided cornelian seal-stone procured by me from Messark,
bearing on its respective sides a stag, a dog or wolf, and a bird, bore the im-
press of a somewhat later art, and seems to show that this form of gem may
have survived in parts of the island to the verge of the classical period.
The stag's antlers were of a curiously conventional form, closely agreeing
with that represented on one of the bronze pateras from the cave of the
Idaean Zeus.*" This points to a date approaching 700 B.C.

The three-sided stone from Smyrna (Fig. 58, p. 334) probably also
belongs to somewhat later date than most of the Cretan seal-stones of the
trilateral type. The cap or helmet on the man's head on the second side

«» Antichitd delV Antra di Zeus Idea, t, Halbhefr e P. Orsi. Atlas, PI. VIII.

represented occurs on a class of seal represented by specimens from Sidon
and elsewhere belonging to a period contemporary with that of the geo-
metrical style in Greece.

Similar comparisons lead me to believe that some at least of the flat
discoid types of Cretan seal-stones represented in Figs. 66, p. 342, and 67,
p. 343, also belong to this later period. The archer on Fig. 66, with his bird-
like head, certainly suggests reminiscences of the ' Dipylon ' style and its
congeners of about the ninth century B.C. A green steatite gem of the
same form as the above, acquired by me in Greece, exhibits moreover a
figure of a spearman with something like the 'Dipylon' crest, and it is
further to be observed that on some seals from the Heraeon at Argos,
apparently belonging to the geometrical period, are seen figures of men in
tunics bearing a family likeness to those on these two Cretan stones.

I have to thank M. J. P. Six, of Amsterdam, for suggestions of various
comparisons between the pictographs and linear signs of Crete and Lykian,
Carian and other characters. The Lykian comparisons are especially
important from the tradition recorded by Herodotos *i and corroborated by
place-names that the Lykians originally came from Crete. In the neigh-
bouring Pisidia was a KprjTcov ttoXj? : in Lykia itself the town-names Aptera
and Einatos are common to Crete and on the Lykian borders was both a town
and mountain called Daedala.

"■ Hist. lib. i. 173. Cf. Hoeck, Oreta it. p. 335 seqq.

INDEX.

Achaeans, reckoned in Odyssey among in-
habitants of Crete, [356], 87.

probably Akayvas of Egyptian monu-
ments, [369], 100.
Adze, [306], 37.

Aegean peoples, early culture of, and its
diffusion, [368], 99.
early influence of, on Canaan, [368], E9.
possible influence of their script on

Phoenician, [368] 99 seqq.
connexion with Philistines, [368] 99

Akayvas of Egyptian monuments probably

Achalans, [369], 100.
Akhenaten (Khuenaten), frescoes of palace
of, [318], 49.

Mycenaean pottery from palace of,
[281], 12.
Alef, comparison of, with Cretan ox-head
symbol and its linear reduction, [364],
95 seqq.
Amerano, Padre, on painted vases of Finale,
130 re.
his discovery of pictographic sculptures
near Finalmarina, [352 n.], 83.
Amorgos, early cist-graves of, [325], 56.
green marble box from, [329 n.\ 60.
primitive ' idol ' from, 127, 129.
Anait of Praesian inscription probably

Anaitis, [354], 85.
Argos, Heraeon of, early seal-stones from,

105.
Arms, human, pictographs, [303], 34.

holding implement, [304], 35.
Arrowheads and arrows, [305], 36.
Artemis, Persian, identified with Anaitis,
[354], 85.

on bronze shield from Cave of Idaean
Zeus, [354], 85.
Arvi (Arbi), steatite pendant from, with
linear characters, [286], 17.

early pottery from cist-graves of, 112.
stone vases from, 117 seqq.
AshmoleanMuseum,OyitoTd, early seal -stones
in, [275], 6, [294], 25, [302], 33, [334], 65.
leaden image in, 132 seqq.
Astarte, early cult of, in Crete, [371],

102
Axe, double, pictograph, [304], 35.
Axe, single, pictograph, [304], 35.
A via compared with Cretan signs, picto-
^grapWc and linear, [365,], 96, [366], 97.

Baltic Coast, primitive ' idols ' of amber, &c.

from, 127.
Beads from H. Onuphrios, 109.
Berlin Museum., early seal-stones in, [275], 6,

[294], 25, [296], 27.
Bliss, Mr. F. J., discoveries at Tell-el-Hesy,

[351], 82.
Bocche di Cattaro, rock paintings of, [270], 1.
Boeoiia, connexion with Crete, [361], 92.
Bosnia, primitive idols from, 130.
Brassempouy, ' Venus ' of, 130.
Bucranium, pictograph, [309], 40.
Butmir, Bosnia, prehistoric settlement,

primitive ' idols' from, 130.
Butterfly, on early seal-stone, [345], 76.

a forerunner of Mvcenaean tvpe, [345],
76.
Button-seals, wide diffusion of, in Levant,
[335], 66.

found in Egypt and Cyrene, [335], 66.
progenitors of Mycenaean lentoid gems,

[3.36], 67.
influence of Xllth Dyn. scarab motives
on early Cretan examples of, [327],
58, [336], 67.
derived from pinched clay-stamps,

[336], 67.
clay parallels to, from Italy, Hungary,
and Hissarlik, [336], 67, [337], 68.

Cahiri, so-called figures of, from Hagiar-Kini,

Malta, 129 and n.
Calochaerinos, Mr. Minds, his excavations at

KnSsos, [281], 12.
Camel on early Cretan seal-stone, [3331 64

[341], 72. ■' '

Candia (Heraklion), Museum of Svllosos

at, [283], 14, [284], 15.
Canopus Decree, the, [371], 102.
Cappadocia, gable-shaped seals from, r334'l

65.
Carian letters compared with Cretan siuns

138. ° '

Chersonisos (Crete), stone vase from, 119

123.
Chester, Mr. Greville, pictographic seal-
stone said to have been procured by, from

Sparta, [275], 6, 137.
primitive seals collected by him, r3341
65, [347], 78. ' l j,

143

INDEX

Kaphtor, identified with Crete, [369], 100.
connected with KeftS ojf Egyptian

monuments, [369], 100 seqq., [370

n.], 101.
Kefti, offerings of, to Thothmes III., [370],
101.
wrongly identified with Phoenicians,

[370], 101.
their land Kefto identified with Kaph-
tor and Crete, [369], 100 seqq.
representatives of Mycenaean culture,

[370], 101.
Khuenaten, see Akhenaten.
Knosns, excavations in Mycenaean building
at, [281], 12.

fragment of stone vessel from, witli

relief in Vaphio style, [361], 92,

[370], 101.
seal-stone from, with linear signs, [293],

24.
Mycenaean gem from, with pictographiu

symbols, [299], 30.
signs on Mycenaean building at, [274

n.], 5, [281], 12 seqq.
first noticed by Mr. W. J. Stillman,

[281], 12.
seal-stones from, with linear signs,

[280], 11.
amethyst intaglio from, with linear

signs, [280], 11, [281], 12.

Labyrinth, suggested identification of, with
prehistoric building at Knfisos, [281],
12.
Ladoga, Lake, primitive ' idol ' from, 127.
Laibach, pile-settlement, primitive ' idols '

from, 130.
Lapland, pictographs of, [270], 1.
Latahia (Syrian Laodicea), bronze figure

from, [370], 101.
Leaden image from Second City Hissarlik,
132.
in Ashmolean Museum, of Selendj type,
132 seqq.
Leg, human, piotograpli, [304], 35.
Libyan ' idol ' from Abusir, 129.
Ligurian caves, neolithic painted vases

from, 130 n.
Linear Script, [346], 77 seqq.

Mycenaean diffusion of, [36 L], 92.
relation of, to pictographs, [362], 93 seqq.
materials for, [346], 77, [347], 78.
on Mycenaean vase-handles, [273], 4,

[274], 5, [353], 84.
on Goulds vase, [278], 9, [279], 10.
on vase, Prodromes Botzano, [279], 10.
on prehistoric blocks, Knosos, [281-283],

12-14.
on Phaestos block, [283], 14.
on amethyst, Knosos, [281], 12.
on whorl, Hagios Onuphrios, [284], 15,

[364], 95, [366], 97.
on seal-stones, [285], 16 seqq.

Linear Script — continued,
on column, Retimo, 137.
on Egyptian seal, [347], 78.
compared with ' Aegean ' signs at
Kahun, [348], 79, [349], 80, [361], 92.
signs occurring in groups, [352], 83,

[353], 84.
compared with signs at Tell-el-Hesy,

[351], 82, [362], 93.
compared with Cypriote signs, [348],

79, [349], 80, [352], 83, [353], 84.
compared with signs on lake-dwelling
pottery, Paladru, [352 n.], 83.
Lion headed being, on early seal-stone, [338],
69.
compared with Mycenaean daemons,
[338], 69, [339], 70.
Louvre, Latakia figure in, [370], 101.
Lyidan letters, compared with Cretan signs,
138.
place-names, identical with Cretan, 138.
Lyldans derived from Crete, 138.
Lyttos, remarkable letter-forms at, [360], 91.

Macedonian names in Crete, [358 b.], 89.
Maket Tomb, Kahun, of Thothmes III.'s
time, [318], 49, [324], 55.

vase from, similar to those of Volo,
[359], 90.
Man, pictograph of, [302], 33.
Maraviglie, Maritime Alps, pictographic

figures of, [270], 1, [352 n.], 83.
Mariani, Dr. Lucio, fresh discoveries of

signs on Cretan seal-stones by, 1 37.
Maros, valley of, primitive 'idols' from,

127.
Maspero, Prof., identifies Pulasati and

Pelasgi, [369 «.], 100.
Melos, stone py.xis from, with primitive

spirals, [329 ra.], 60.
3lesembria, pictograph on coins of, [273], 4.
Messara, steatite relief from, [287], 18.

pictographic seal-stone from, [299], 30.
Milato (Miletos), stone vase from, 119, 124.
Milchhofer, Dr. A ., liis derivation of Myce-
naean spirals from wire work, [330 «.], 61.
Milkman, on early seal-stone, [337], 68.
' Milhstones ' or yaXoTrerpos worn by Cretan

women, [276], 7.
Minds, mention of, in Odyssey, [356], 87.
not Dorian, [356], 87.
his nine-year reign = Dorian long year,

[356 and «.], 87.
adopted by son of Dorian oekist, [357],

88.
the Cretan Moses, [371], 102.
Mould with God and Goddess from Selendj,

132 seqq.
Mailer, Dr. W. Max, on Takkaras, [369], 100.
Mycenae, signs on vase-handles at, [273], 4.
the Cretan, founded by Agamemnon,
[361], 92.

INDEX

144

Mycenaean affinities of Cretan pictosraphs,
[3I7],_48 se^.

ceiling design restored from template

symbol and gem, [322], 53.
art in Crete, closely allied with that

of Peloponnese, [361], 92.
distinct from Hittite, [370], 101.
gems of Crete compared with Pelopon-

nesian, [360], 91.
gold ring, with cult scene, [361], 92.
Myres, Mr. J. L., his account of the Ka-
mares pottery, [350 m.], 81.
on the Cretan stone vases, 124.

Naue, Dr. Julius, on spiral ornament,

[329 n.], 60, [330 ».], 61.
Nagada, early settlement at, 117 n.
NiJcolsky, on nude figures of Chaldaean

cylinders, 131 n.

Oaxos (Axos), form of Vau at, [360], 91.
Orchomenos, Mycenaean ceiling of, [322],

53.
Orsi, Prof. Paolo, on cave of Idaean Zeus,

[354], 85.
on Cretan ossuary, [319 n.], 50.
Ostrich, apparent representation of, on early

seal-stone, [341], 72.
Ox, pictograph, [309], 40.
Ox's head, pictograph, [309], 40.

Paladru, Isfere, linear signs on pottery of

pile-dwellings at, [352 m.], 83.
Palaekastro, perhaps Grammion, near
Itanos, [276], 7.
piotographic seal from, [297], 28.
Perrot, M., denies existence of Mycenaean

script, [274], 5.
Petrie, Prof. W. M. Flinders, excavations
at Koptos, [318], 49.

on Maket Tomb, Kahun, [318], 49.

on ' cowroids,' [326 and m.], 57.

on spiral ornament of Egyptian scarab,

[330 n.\ 61.
on ' Aegean ' signs on potsherds of

Kahun and Gurob, [348], 79.
on date of Kahun rubbish-heaps, [348-

351], 79-82.
his discovery of early settlement at
Nagada, 117 «., 119, 129.
Phaestos, block with linear signs discovered
at, by Prof. Halbherr, [283], 14.

engraved whorl from deposit at Hagios

Onuphrios near, [284], 15.
seal-stones from do., [284], 15, [285], 16,
[325], 56.

(See Hagios Onuphrios.)
Pharmahokephali, stone vases from, 119.
Philistines, connected with Kefti, [369], 100
seqq.

Philistines — continued.

representatives of Mycenaean culture,

[368], 99 seqq.
important part played by, in East

Mediterranean basin, [368], 99 seqq.
of Askalon oppress Sidon, [368], 99.
Palestine, landmark of their conquests,

[368], 99.
commercial instinct of, perceptible in

seizure of Gaza, [368], 99.
Cherethites or Cretans important
members of their confederation, [368],
99, [369], 100.
probably identical with ' Pulasati,'
[369 and m.], 100.
"EXXjjves in LXX. version of Isaiah,

[369], 100.
their city Dore or Dor perhaps Dorian

settlement, [369], 100.
brought by Hebrew tradition from Isle

of Caphtor, [369], 100.
probably from Crete and Aegean Isles,
[369], 100 seqq.
Phoenician alphabet, comparison of letters
of, with Cretan signs, pictographic and
linear, [364], 95 seqq.
Phoenicians according to Cretan tradition
improved but did not invent letters, [372],
103.
Pictographs (Cretan), in groups of 2 to 7,
[300], 31.

similar collocations of, on different

stones, [301], 32.
boustrophedon arrangement of, [301],

32.
personal relation of, to owner of seal,

[302], 33.
classification of, [303], 34 seqq., [331],

62, [332], 63.
Mycenaean affinities of, [317], 48 seqq.
earlier classes of, [324], 55 seqq.
frequency of certain types of, [300], 31.
taken from gesture language, [300], 31.
relation of to linear signs, [362], 93 seqq.
occur on similar stones to those with

linear signs, [362], 93.
experimental reduction of, to linear

forms, [363], 94.
relation of, to Cypriote letters, [363],

94 seqq.

relation of, to Semitic letters, [364],

95 seqq.

relation of, to Lykian and Carian letters,
138.
Pig, pictograph, [310], 41.
Pinies, near Elunta, stone vase from, 117,

118.
Pitane, Mycenaean vase from, [319], 50 n.
Plectrum, pictograph, [306], 37.
Polytechnion, Athens, Cretan seal-stones in,

[276], 7, [295], 26, [297], 28.
Praesians, their traditions as to Greek settle-
ment in Crete, [357 and «.], 88.
akin to Kydonians, [357], 88.

145

INDEX

Fmesos, Eteocretan inscription of, [275], 6,
[354], 85, [355], 86.
Archaic Greek epigraphy of, [354], 85.
Praesos, inscribed seal-stones from, [276], 7.
early pictographic sealstones from,
[293], 24, [337], 58.
Prodromes Botzano, early vase from, with

linear signs, [279], 10.
Psychro, Cave of, antiquities from, [277], 8.
probably Diktaion Antron, 119.
stone vase from, 119, 122.
Pulasali, probably identical with Philis-
tines, [369], 100.
perhaps also = Pelasgians, [369], 100.

Ramanu, Chaldaean God, figured nude on
cylinders with Sala, 131 and n.
the Syrian Rimmon, 131 n.
identified with form of Tammuz, 131 n.
Peichel, Dr., on linear designs on Mycenaean

silver fragment, [274 n.'], 5.
Reiuach, M. Salomon, on primitive Euro-
pean 'idols,' 130 n.

on Selendj mould, 132 seqq.
on ' Aegean ' influences upon Chaldaean
figures, 134 n.
Renan identifies Pulasati and Pelasgians,

[369 n.\ 100.
Retinio (Rhithymna), column at, with

Mycenaean sign, 137.
Ring, Mycenaean, of gold with cult scene,

[361], 92.
Roumania, primitive ' idol ' from, 127.
Rump, pictograph, [304], 35.

Sahaean Inscriptions, pictographic signs on,
[363], 94.
early form of Zayin in, [366], 97.
Sala, Chaldaean Goddess, figured nude on
cylinders, 131 and n.

accompanied by Ramanu, 131 and n.
identified with form of Istar, 131
and n.
Samelh compared with Cretan signs, picto-
graphic and linear, [365], 96, [366], 97.
Saw, [307], 38.

Sayce, Professor A. H., on signs upon early
whorls of Hissarlik, [361], 92.

on leaden image from Hissarlik, 132 n.
impression of pictographic seal taken
by, at Athens, [275], 6, [229], 30.
Scarabs, Egypjtian, Xllth Dynasty, [326],
57 seqq.
found at Hagios Onuphrios, [326], 57.
influence of, on Cretan seal-stones, [327],
58 seqq., [343], 74 seqq.
Schliemanrt compares prehistoric building
at Knosos with palaces of Tiryns and
Mycenae, [281], 12.
Seal-stones, passim.

classified, [288], 19, [289], 20 seqq.

Selahonos, bronze axe from, with symbol,

[280], 11.
Semitic elements in Crete, [371], 102.
Semites, earliest historical script of, cunei-
form, [367], 98.
Ship, pictograph, [306], 3!).
Shutter, pictograph, [307], 38.
Siphnos, inscribed steatite from, [287], 18,

[288], 19.
Siret, Brothers, on prehistoric antiquities of

Spain, 130 and n.
Siteia, Crete, ' idols ' from, 124, 128.

pictographic, &c. seals from, [276], 7,

[290], 21, [292], 23, [295], 26, [297],

28.

Six, J. P., comparisons by, of Lykian, &c.

letters with Cretan pictographs and signs,

138.

Smyrna, triangular seal-stone from, [334],

65.
Spain, primitive ' idols ' from, 130 and n.
Sparta, pictographic seal-stones wrongly

attributed to, [294], 25.
Spear-head, bronze, with double point, from

H. Onuphrios deposit, 135, 136.
Spearmen on early seal-stone, [338], 69,

[343], 74, [344], 75.
Spiral motive, Egyptian origin of, [328], 59
seqq.

appears first on scarabs, [329], 60, [330],

61.
confined at first to stonework in Aegean

art, [329], 60, [330], 61.
acclimatized in prae-Mycenaean Greece,

[329], 60.
reinforced in Mycenaean times by
XVIIIth and XlXth Dyn. in-
fluences, [329], 60.
wide European diffusions, [329 and n.\

60.
on Xlllth Dyn. pottery, [330 h.], 61.
Star, pictograph, [312], 43.
Stillmann, Mr. W. J., on the signs of pre-
historic building at Knosos, [281], 12.
Stone vases from early Cretan deposits, 116
seqq.

compared with those from other Aegean

islands, 117.
compared with Egyptian and Libyan

forms, 117 seqq.
compared with Mycenaean, 122.
materials of, 117, 124.
Syhrita, cave near, antiquities from, [277], 8.
Syria, evidence of early Cretan connexion
with, [333], 64 seqq.

Talelcara of Egyptian monuments probably

Teuori, [369], 100.
their city, Dore or Dor, [369], 100.
Taramelli, Dr. Antonio, fresh discoveries of

signs on Cretan seal-stones by, 137.

Tel-el Amarna, frescoes of palace at, [318],
49.

Mycenaean pottery from, [281], 12.
Tell-el-Hesy, 'Aegean' signs on pottery
from, [351], 82.
Mycenaean pottery at, [362], 93.
Tel Nehesheh, bronze two-pronged imple-
ments of, 136.
Template symbol, [305], 36.

practical application of, [321], 52 seqq.
Teucri identified with Takkara, [369], 100.
Teutamos, leader of Dorian colonists from
Thessaly, [Sbl], 88.

Pelasgian character of name, [357 «.],

88.
his son adopts Minos, [357], 88, [358],
89.
Thera, pottery of, compared with that of

Hagios Onuphrios, [325], 56, [326], 57.
Thessalian names in Crete, [358 «.], 89.
Thessaly, Dorian settlement from, in Crete,

[357], 88 seqq.
Thothmes II., green jasper seal-stone of,

[324], 55.
Thotltiites III., Aegean invasions of Egypt
under, [368 and n.], 99.
foundation deposits of, at Koptos, [318],
49.
Tiryns, wall-painting of palace at, [322], 53.
Tischler, Dr., on Baltic 'idols,' 127 n.
Torr, Mr. Cecil, on Mycenaean chronology,

[318], 49 H.
Tree, pictograph, [312], 43.
Tsountas, Dr., on Mycenaean signs, [274], 5.
Tylor, Dr. E. B., on Mexican figures, 131.
Tylor, Mr. Joseph, on Egyptian ceilings
from Silsilis, [322 jl], 53.

Usertesen II., Aegean colony in Egypt under,
[333], 64.

INDEX

Dshabtis, Egyptian, 131.

14G

Vaphio Tomb, gold cup from, [361], 92.

men on, resembling Kefti of Egyptian

monuments, [370], 101.
similar reliefs to, on Kuosian fragment,
[361], 92, [370], 101.
Vase, pictograph, [307, 308], 38, 39.
Fffl««s, primitive types of, onearlyseal-stones,
[332], 63, [338], 69.

early painted, approaching style of
Thera, [325], 56.
Villafrati, Sicily, primitive ' idol ' from,
130 n.

Waldstein, Dr., Director of excavations of
the American school in Heraeon at Argos,
105.
Wolf's head, pictograph, [310], 42.
Wolters, Dr. P., on Mycenaean vases from
Volo, [359 n.], 90.

on primitive 'idol' from Amorgos,
127 n.

Zayin, Sabaean form of, [363], 94.

comparison of, with Cretan ' double-
axe' symbol, [365], 96, [366], 97.
Zephaniah, LXX. version of, translates

Cherethites by Kpijres, [368], 99.
Zeus, Idaean, antiquities from cave of, [277],
8, [283], 14.

cave of, [285], 16, [359], 90.

KIOHAED CLAY AND SONS, LIMrrED, LONBON AHD BUNGAY.

J. H. S. VOL. XIV. (1894) PL, XM.

RECONSTRUCTION OF MYCENAEAN CEILING DECORATION,
FROM CRETAN GEM AND TEMPLATE SYMBOL.

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Full text of "Cretan pictographs and prae-Phoenician script. With an account of a sepulchral deposit at Hagios Onuphrios near Phaestos in its relation primitive Cretan and Aegean culture"

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